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News of police officers robbing suspects was common at the height of the war on drugs. In a throwback to those days, two Baltimore Police Detectives pleaded guilty on Friday to racketeering and billing the department for overtime work they didn’t perform, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Over a two-year period, Evodio Hendrix and Maurice Ward committed multiple robberies. In one case, they took drugs and cash from a suspected drug dealer during an arrest—but they didn’t stop there. The detectives confiscated the suspect’s house keys and stole $200,000 from a safe in the home.

They also admitted to stealing $17,000 from another home while conducting a search. And during a traffic stop, the rogue detectives stole $1,700 from another person.

The Sun said the judge could sentence them in February to seven to nine years in prison under sentencing guidelines, or up to the maximum 20 years.

Hendrix and Ward, who originally pleaded not guilty, were part of the department’s seven-member Gun Trace Task Force, an elite plainclothes unit created to stem the city’s illegal gun trade. The entire task force participated in illegal activities and billing the department for overtime hours they didn’t work.

When their illegal activities came to light, officials dropped criminal charges against dozens of suspects who were arrested or prosecuted in connection with the unit.

This comes on the heels of a drug planting scandal that rocked the department. A bodycam video shows a Baltimore police officer planting narcotics before arresting a suspect for the crime.

SOURCE:  Baltimore Sun

 

2 Baltimore Cops Admit To Robbing Suspects  was originally published on newsone.com