LITTLE ROCK — Two Little Rock police officers were arrested Thursday on charges they escorted three shipments of marijuana totaling more than a half ton through the city while on duty.
Officers Mark Anthony Jones, 45, and Randall Tremayn Robinson, 38, who are half brothers, are accused of protecting controlleddrug deliveries while driving marked patrol cars while armed and in uniform and accepting payments totaling $14,000, according to a news release the U.S. attorney’s office issued Thursday evening.
They are charged with conspiring to aid and abet the possession with intent to distribute more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, attempting to aid and abet the possession with intent to distribute more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, and possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
The officers, who were taken into custody without incident Thursday morning, are scheduled to have their initial court appearances at 11 a.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, beginning Jan. 4, Jones began communicating with a confidential informant and agreed to escort a shipment of marijuana. Jones met the informant with the shipment off Interstate 430 and, while on duty in his patrol car, escorted the informant with the shipment to storage in Little Rock on Jan. 12. Jones was provided security for another shipment on Jan. 31 and was paid $2,000 for each trip by the informant, the affidavit says.
In February, Jones traveled to Los Angeles to meet the informant’s drug connection on the West Coast. The connection was an undercover agent who discussed increasing the size of the marijuana shipment from 200 pounds to 1,000 pounds to lessen the risk of multiple cross-country trips, according to the affidavit. Jones agreed to provide additional security for the shipment, the affidavit says.
The affidavit goes on to allege that on March 22, Jones and Robinson provided security for 1,000 pounds of “pharmaceutical grade” marijuana while on-duty and driving marked patrol vehicles, while armed and in uniform. Jones and Robinson were paid $5,000 each for providing security on this load, it says.
During Robinson’s trip, a shooting occurred in west Little Rock, with all available officers ordered to respond.
“As other police cars were traveling to the scene of the shooting, they passed Robinson’s patrol car following the vehicle with the marijuana,” FBI agent J.T. Coleman wrote in the affidavit. “This was captured on video cameras of the police cars responding to the scene as they had their lights and sirens engaged.”
The arrests were the result of an investigation by the FBI and Little Rock police that began more than two years ago, according to Coleman. “The investigation focused on, among other things, Jones and Robinson’s involvement in the distribution of narcotics,” he wrote.
The investigation included audio and video recordings as well as aerial surveillance and cell-phone records, according to the affidavit.
“Just tell me what you need,” Jones is quoted as saying in one recorded conversation between him and the informant in which they supposedly discussed Jones’ guarding a shipment. “Just plan it out and tell me what you need.”
In a statement, Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said it’s “disheartening to know that members of this department are alleged to have violated their oaths and our trust in the manner detailed in the criminal complaint.
“I am, however, extremely proud of the men and women of this department who participated in this difficult and demanding investigation.”
Randall Coleman, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Little Rock office called the arrests “bittersweet.”
“While allegations that two Little Rock police officers participated in corrupt acts are disappointing, this joint investigation between our agency and the Little Rock Police Department represents an extraordinary, collaborative effort at combating corruption,” he added.
Jones and Robinson are “senior” officers who remain employed with the department “for the time being,” said Lt. Terry Hastings, a department spokesman. “They are on paid leave at the moment.”
According to a 2009 department seniority list, Jones has been with the department for 26 years, joining the force in 1988. Robinson joined the department 11 years ago.
Jones and Robinson were being held Thursday evening at the Pulaski County jail. Both were placed in protective custody — alone in cells away from other inmates — for their safety, said Pulaski County sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Carl Minden.
U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer said that while investigating law-enforcement officers was difficult “we owe it to this community and, more importantly, to the upstanding individuals who wear the badge of the LRPD.”
Information for this article was contributed by Chad Day of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette .
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/25/2012