Pubdate: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA) Copyright: 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Contact: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html Website: http://www.ajc.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28 Author: Ty Tagami, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution CAMPUS COP GETS 14 YEARS FOR PUSHING ECSTASY AND METH A federal judge in Atlanta sentenced a campus cop to 14 years in prison Friday for his role in a drug distribution ring that reached from Atlanta to Boston. Richard Trong Ong, 37, was a police officer at Suffolk University in Boston when he distributed 20,000 methamphetamine-laced ecstasy tablets to co-conspirators, said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. He was arrested in 2005 at his suburban Boston home after agents seized the pills. An Atlanta jury convicted the Quincy, Mass. man in August after a week-long trial on conspiracy drug distribution charges. He was the last of two dozen co-conspirators to be sentenced in the case. His supplier, a Canadian named Chiem Mach, moved to Atlanta in 2004 to lead a smuggling outfit that imported hundreds of thousands of ecstasy pills from Canada to Atlanta, Yates said. Mach was arrested in 2005 but died in custody while awaiting trial. According to prosecutors, the case unfolded like this: On August 6, 2005, Ong met with Mach in a downtown Boston restaurant after finishing his police shift. The next day, Mach's drug courier delivered 40,000 ecstasy tablets to Ong. On Aug. 10 Ong, was arrested as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, and three months later Mach and most of the others were arrested. Ong was convicted on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute ecstasy and methamphetamine, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes to 14 years in prison plus five years of supervised release. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D