Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2001
Source: Naples Daily News (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Naples Daily News.
Contact:  http://www.naplesnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/284
Note: Publisher prints several newspapers - please indicate which 
newspaper in LTEs.

FORMER MIAMI-DADE OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO COCAINE CHARGES

MIAMI - A former Miami-Dade police officer has been sentenced to 10 
years in prison after pleading guilty to armed cocaine trafficking, 
conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and attempted trafficking in cocaine.

The conviction of Reynaldo Garcia followed a three-year investigation 
by the Miami-Dade Police Department and the State Attorney's Office 
that a police officer was ripping off drug dealers, State Attorney 
Kathy Fernandez Rundle said Thursday.

In 1998, police received information that Garcia and another police 
officer were stealing cocaine from drug dealers. The department 
arranged a sting operation. Garcia, who had been retired two weeks, 
and another officer confronted the undercover officer and stole the 
cocaine.

"Garcia besmirched the good work that our police men and women 
accomplish everyday," Fernandez Rundle said.
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