FORMER DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT DRUG INFORMANTS SENTENCED ON CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS FOR PLANTING FAKE DRUGS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta today announced that three former paid informants of the Dallas Police Department were sentenced today, each receiving more than thirty-three months in federal prison for their role in fabricating and planting counterfeit drugs on numerous innocent victims.

Enrique Martinez Alonso, Jose Ruiz and Roberto Gonzalez were sentenced to terms of thirty-eight, thirty-three and forty-one months of imprisonment respectively for conspiring with each other to violate the civil rights of numerous Dallas residents. The three defendants engaged in a scheme to package large quantities of counterfeit drugs and plant them near unsuspecting persons. The defendants then provided false information to Dallas police officers, who subsequently arrested the innocent victims. Many of the victims spent months in jail, falsely accused of drug dealing, before it was discovered that the drugs were fake.

“These defendants have been brought to justice and have been held accountable for preying on scores of innocent citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Acosta. “The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting any individual who takes advantage of a relationship with law enforcement to enrich themselves at the expense of innocent members of our community. Such conduct not only hurts the immediate victims, it also undermines the trust in our nation’s criminal justice system."

The defendants were working under the direction of an officer of the Dallas Police Department’s Narcotics Division when they carried out their scheme. The planted substances ultimately were determined to be either crushed billiard chalk packaged to resemble powder cocaine or a chemical concoction packaged to resemble methamphetamine. Each of the defendants had pleaded guilty for these offenses and pledged to cooperate with the investigation.

In announcing today’s sentencing, Assistant Attorney General Acosta commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for spearheading the investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by officers of the Dallas Police Department’s Narcotics Division and their informants. Trial attorneys from the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division prosecuted this case.

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