COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Three more ex-South Carolina police officers were sentenced to federal prison after an FBI operation in which agents impersonated members of the Mexican drug cartel.
A US judge in a federal court in Columbia sentenced Carolyn Colter Franklin, 64, a former deputy from Orangeburg County; Allan Hunter, 52, a former Springfield police officer; and Nathaniel Miller Shazier, III, 29, a former Orangeburg County deputy, charged with conspiracy to defraud, announced the District Attorney for the District of South Carolina Monday.
The three are the last of the six Orangeburg County police officers to be sentenced in the secret frame, in which prosecutors claimed the officers thought they were protecting Mexican drug dealers, but were actually communicating with FBI agents posing as members of the cartel. The operation took place from December 2018 to March 2019.
Wiretapping and FBI videos showed that police officers agreed to use uniformed patrol cars and accept payment to “protect” fake drug trucks that allegedly traveled through Orangeburg, officials said. Prosecutors said some policemen also conspired to create fraudulent documents for non-immigrants in exchange for bribes.
Franklin was sentenced to five years and a month in prison, Hunter to five years and three months in prison and Shazier to three years and ten months in prison. Defendants were also required to complete three years of supervised freedom.
The Department of Justice previously convicted a former Springfield officer and two former deputies from Orangeburg County in the case. A security guard also pleaded guilty to knowing about an illegal scheme and not informing the authorities. He was convicted at a later date, according to his lawyer.