FBI Probes Cops' Alleged Ties to Gambling Ring, Drugs
Investigators also suspect link to ring-related slayings
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The investigation centers on whether the officers protected drug dealers at high-stakes, illegal gambling games.
Federal investigators are looking into whether a group of local police officers took money to protect a high-stakes gambling ring over the past two years.
The FBI is also checking whether the group was involved in several slayings linked to the gambling ring, which includes some of the area's most powerful drug dealers, according to a report in The Washington Post.
The investigation involves more officers than any in recent years and a potentially flagrant abuse of police power, and is the longest such probe since a sting operation related to the case of drug dealer Rayful Edmond III nearly 20 years ago, the Post noted. That case led to the indictment of 12 District police officers.
Five veteran officers from Prince George's County -- including Cpl. Eddie Smith, whose street name is "X-Man", a D.C. police official and a former D.C. housing authority officer are among those allegedly at the center of the investigation.
Documents show phone records, surveillance and other evidence tie most of the officers directly to the ring's leaders.
The probe had been a combined operation between Prince George's County Police and the FBI until early this year, when Prince George's Police Chief Roberto L. Hylton said he decided to hand it completely over to the FBI "to show objectivity and to remove any air of impropriety."
"...We don't have a perfect organization . . . we have troubles and trials like everyone else. But one thing I can promise you is that I believe in accountability," Hylton said. "I will not allow a dirty police officer to harm or affect the good work that the majority of these police officers are doing every single day."
The sources interviewed by the Post did not say how much money the officers might have taken or whether the probe will lead to charges.
The sources said that investigators think the gambling ring's operators, at least one of whom is a longtime friend of a Prince George's officer under investigation, sought police assistance for security. The gatherings, held late at night and rotated among warehouses and other industrial locations, centered around craps games in which $100,000 or more could be seen in play at a time. Among the bettors were drug dealers and their entourages, sometimes from as far away as Baltimore, sources said.
"It's right out of the movies," one source said of the scope of the officers' possible criminal misconduct. "As big as it gets," another said.
A spokesperson for the PG County Police Department told News4 that they will officially comment on the investigation on Monday.
