Pubdate: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY) Copyright: 2003 Watertown Daily Times Contact: http://www.wdt.net Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792 Author: Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) DETECTIVE ALLEGEDLY TOOK DRUG MONEY NEW YORK - The arrest appeared by-the-book: Two men in NYPD windbreakers, their guns drawn, grabbed a drug dealer carrying a black shoulder bag on a Queens street. One peered in side the bag and gave a thumbs-up. But authorities allege the scene was really a robbery. They say both men, including a veteran detective, planned to pocket the bag's contents: $169,000 in drug money. The detective, Julio Vasquez, 43, and a retired officer, Thomas Rachko, 45, were awaiting arraignment Wednesday in a corruption case that disrupted an unrelated money-laundering probe of a Colombian drug ring. A federal complaint filed in Brooklyn alleges the men lied to investigators. Separate state charges accuse them of grand larceny and other offences. Calls to defense attorneys were not immediately returned. Police officials said Vasquez resigned this week after 18 years on the force. An internal investigation was under way to determine whether more officers and more robberies were involved. The alleged scheme was inadvertently uncovered by the El Dorado Task Force, a team of local officers and federal investigators that had been trailing the dealer in the separate money-laundering probe. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin