Thread: Mexican Federal Officer caught as illegal with drug shipment

Saturday, 09/02/06

I-40 drug bust on bus nabs Mexican officer
Dog catches scent of marijuana in traffic stop

By MICHAELA JACKSON
Staff Writer


FRANKLIN —A Mexican law-enforcement officer is in custody in Franklin after a 13-pound bale of marijuana was found in a piece of his luggage on a passenger bus en route from Mexico to Lexington, Ky.

Alfonso Barrutia Dela Torre, 31, from Mexico, was arrested Thursday morning when Williamson County Sheriff's Deputy Andy Ryan stopped the bus on I-40 eastbound for following a car too closely.

When the bus driver gave Ryan permission to search the bus, a drug-detection dog uncovered the illegal substance, which police say is worth about $10,000.

When Ryan began searching the bus, Torre became nervous, Ryan said, and when the dog found the drugs, Torrehung his head and denied that the bale belonged to him. When the dog, a 5-year-old Belgian malinois named Leo, sniffed out the marijuana, Ryan said he had no doubt they were dealing with an illegal substance.

"He's got no lie in him," said Ryan of Leo, who is trained to identify several drugs by smell.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security were called, and they subsequently took custody of five other passengers who werein the country illegally, authorities reported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement later determined Torre's name and role as a federal police officer in Mexico. He reportedly had first given a false name.

Torre was in the country on a visitor's pass that forbade him from going farther than 25 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. He boarded the bus in Texas, and authorities believe he was bound for Nashville.

"I believe that he had worked out something with someone in Nashville ... to deliver the dope," Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley said.

When asked if he was shocked by the involvement of a police officer in drug trafficking, Headley's response was ambivalent.

"I want to say yes, but the true answer is I'm not surprised by anything," he said. He emphasized his disappointment in an officer who betrays his duty to protect citizens and uphold the law.

"I strongly advise that whatever the penalty is (for any crime) should be three or four times greater for a law enforcement officer who violates the law," Headley said.

In addition to facing drug charges, Torre will probably face federal charges for the violation of his visitor's pass, as well as charges in Mexico, Headley said.

Although the Williamson County Sheriff's Department had never found marijuana on a passenger bus, uncovering drug-trafficking attempts in the area is not unusual, Headley said.

Torre is being held without bail in the Williamson County Criminal Justice Center. He is to appear in court Wednesday. •

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 6609020341

Good job Leo!
If you have never seen a well trained dog do a search it is really something, it is amazing what they can do.