LOS ANGELES – A former Montebello police officer pleaded responsible right this moment to a federal bribery cost for accepting at the least $14,000 in money from a drug trafficker in trade for escorting narcotics shipments and looking out a police database to provide the trafficker data on folks suspected of cooperating with regulation enforcement.
As the results of an investigation by Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, Rudolph Petersen, 34, pleaded responsible to a single-count data charging him with bribery.
Petersen served as a Montebello Police officer for practically 4 years, and from December 2018 to August 2020, in response to his plea settlement, Petersen solicited and acquired quite a few money bribes from a gang member and drug trafficker recognized in courtroom doc as “Co-Schemer 2.”
In mid-2018, Co-Schemer 2 had dinner with Petersen and said he may put Petersen “on his payroll,” and, by way of an middleman, gave Petersen $500.
Co-Schemer 2 met once more with Petersen in December 2018. Throughout that assembly, Co-Schemer 2 supplied – and Petersen agreed to simply accept – a $10,000 bribe to escort a car containing a cargo of narcotics and shield it from regulation enforcement and would-be robbers.
Three months later, Petersen – who was armed and carrying a safety guard uniform that resembled an official police uniform – efficiently escorted a white U-Haul truck containing what Petersen believed was illegally grown marijuana from Fontana to a location off California State Route 60 close to Rowland Heights. Petersen returned to the residence of Co-Schemer 2, who gave him a paper bag crammed with $10,000 in money. Petersen admitted to escorting at the least one further drug cargo for Co-Schemer 2.
Petersen additionally admitted to accessing a regulation enforcement database to seek for data on a person whom Co-Schemer 2 believed was a “snitch” who had helped regulation enforcement intercept a cocaine cargo. In trade for bribes of $500 to $1,000 per database search, Petersen reported to Co-Schemer 2 the data on the person, in addition to others suspected of cooperating with regulation enforcement.
In September 2020, Co-Schemer 2 paid Petersen $1,000 to analyze whether or not monitoring gadgets discovered on automobiles that he and one other co-schemer used have been a part of a state or federal regulation enforcement investigation.
Petersen admitted to accepting at the least $14,000 in bribes.
U.S. District Choose Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. has scheduled a January 11, 2022 sentencing listening to, at which era Petersen will face a statutory most sentence of 10 years in federal jail.
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Lawyer for the Central District of California’s Worldwide Narcotics, Cash Laundering and Racketeering Part.
HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), answerable for investigating transnational crime and threats, particularly these prison organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure by way of which worldwide commerce, journey and finance transfer.
HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 staff consists of greater than 7,100 Particular Brokers assigned to 220 cities all through the USA, and 80 abroad areas in 53 international locations. HSI’s worldwide presence represents DHS’s largest investigative regulation enforcement presence overseas and one of many largest worldwide footprints in U.S. regulation enforcement.