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from: hXXp://cbs2chicago.com/local/harvey.police.raid.2.877798.html#strategic15 Cops Charged In FBI Sting, Drug Dealing ProbeChicago, Harvey And Cook County Sheriff's Officers Among Those ApprehendedHARVEY, Ill. (CBS) ― Seventeen people -- including 15 south suburban police officers -- have been charged in a federal probe of allegations that officers provided armed security for large-scale drug deals. The officers apparently thought they were protecting high-rolling drug dealers. It turned out they were actually FBI agents. All 17 were charged Tuesday with conspiracy to possess and distribute kilogram quantities of cocaine and/or heroin in eight separate criminal complaints unsealed following arrests early Tuesday, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office. CBS 2's Mike Parker reports that the FBI, armed with warrants, raided the Harvey Police Department's headquarters early Tuesday morning.Ten sheriff's correctional officers - sworn personnel that worked the jails and lockups have been charged with criminal conspiracy. The Feds say the sheriff's officers along with four police officers from Harvey and one Chicago cop were caught in an FBI sting. "An undercover FBI agent was able to deal with not one, not two, but 15 different law enforcement officers who sold out their badge in a greed for money to help drug dealers do their business," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Prosecutors say the officers took up to $4,000 in payoffs to act as lookouts and protection when what they thought were big drug deals were going down. Among those arrested in the sting, two sheriff's corrections officers now on leave from Cook County serving with the Illinois National Guard in Afghanistan: Ahyetoro A. Taylor and Jermaine E. Bell. "Obviously we'll go through the appropriate efforts to have them arrested and brought back," Fitzgerald said. Seven of the eight complaints were supported by a single, 61-page FBI affidavit that outlines an undercover investigation that involved such activity as police officers protecting a high-stakes poker game, protecting transportation of large amounts of cash and two law officers actually selling powder cocaine, in addition to the routine activity of providing security for purported narcotics transactions, the release said.Fourteen of the defendants were either arrested or surrendered Tuesday and appeared at 3 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason in U.S. District Court. Arrest warrants were issued for Ahyetoro A. Taylor, 28, of Joliet; and Jermaine E. Bell, 37, of Lynwood, Cook County Sheriff's officers who are on active military duty with Army National Guard units in Afghanistan. Another defendant, Archie Stallworth, 36, of Harvey, a Harvey police officer, was arrested Nov. 19 but the charges remained under seal until Tuesday, the release said. He was released on bond and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4. According to a release, a six-passenger, twin propeller engine aircraft flew on May 13 into west suburban DuPage Airport where three men awaited its arrival. Two of them -- Taylor and Raphael Manuel, both Cook County sheriff's Correctional Officers -- accompanied someone whom they believed brokered large-scale drug transactions but, in fact, was an undercover FBI agent, the release said. They boarded the aircraft, operated by two other undercover agents, and began counting packages of what was purported to be at least 80 kilograms of cocaine inside four duffel bags. Taylor, Manuel and the undercover agent removed the duffels from the plane and took them through the airport lobby to the trunk of the agent's car in the parking lot, the affidavit alleges. Taylor and Manuel, in a separate car, followed the agent to a nearby parking lot, where the agent parked and got into the officers' vehicle. Together, the trio watched as yet another undercover agent arrived, removed the duffels and drove away. The FBI agent posing as the drug broker then paid Taylor and Manuel $4,000 each -- allegedly their most profitable payday in the corrupt relationship they began with the undercover agent at least a year earlier. The undercover agent, while posing as an employee of a business in south suburban Harvey, was the hub in multiple spokes of police corruption in which Taylor and Manuel -- often together with other officers they recruited -- allegedly provided armed security for purported cocaine and heroin transactions throughout the south suburbs in 2007 and 2008, the affidavit alleges. Of the 17 defendants, 10 are Cook County Sheriff's correctional officers, four are Harvey police officers and one is a Chicago police officer. They allegedly accepted between $400 and $4,000 each on one or more occasions to serve as lookouts and be ready to intervene if real police or rival drug dealers attempted to interfere with transfers of cocaine and heroin, according to the affidavit. "Ideally, it should be hard to find one corrupt police officer and it should never be easy to find 15 who allegedly used their guns and badges to protect people they believed were dealing drugs instead of arresting them," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said in the release. "And the involvement of some in off-loading and delivering what they thought were large shipments of drugs flown in by plane is particularly shocking." According to the common affidavit, the undercover agent paid a total of $44,000 to 16 of the defendants, not including an additional $1,000 to Stallworth. The largest shares allegedly were paid to Taylor ($15,000) and Manuel ($14,500), respectively, for providing security during alleged drug transactions. Among the others charged were: -- Tavis Ramsey, 31, of Chicago; -- Dwayne Williams, 42, of Country Club Hills; -- Antoine D. Dudley, 28, of Harvey, Harvey police officer; -- James Engram, Jr., 41, of Calumet City, Harvey police officer; -- Kyle T. Wilson, 31, of Chicago, Chicago police officer; -- Timothy Funches, 26, of Bellwood, sheriff's officer; -- Diallo Mingo, 34, of Calumet City, sheriff's officer; -- Antwon Funches, 34, of Chicago, sheriff's officer: -- Antonio B. McCaskill, 30, of Harvey: -- Richard O. Hall Jr., 35, of Chicago, sheriff's officer; -- Robert L. Kelly, 32, of Glenwood, sheriff's officer: -- Daniel L. Lee, 31, of Chicago, sheriff's officer: and -- Julius L. Scott Jr. , 34, of Richton Park, sheriff's officer. The Harvey police department has been the target of a number of investigations by state police in the past few years. Those investigations involved a number of suspiciously unsolved murders, and, in a celebrated incident, the mysterious disappearance of a gun police had been holding as evidence in one case. Over the past year, a task force including members of the Cook County State's Attorney's office and Illinois State Police raided the department and removed evidence that has been used to bring murder charges against several suspects. Also, a charge was brought against a Harvey detective for attempting to interfere in the investigation of a shooting of a fellow Harvey officer. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says the arrests have him upset beyond words. "When you have people like this who turn their back on their job, their duty, their family, the community, the taxpayers - it's disgusting," Dart said. Dart says his own investigators were aware that something was going on and had plans to infiltrate the crooked cops. When they found out the FBI was running the sting, they backed off.
