2 Ex-Officers Sent to Prison for Drug Theft

Two former police officers were sentenced to prison Wednesday for their roles in a ring that stole 650 pounds of cocaine from an evidence locker.

Michael Wilcox, 42, a former California Highway Patrol officer, received a 63-month sentence after pleading guilty in Los Angeles federal court to conspiring to distribute cocaine and to structuring a bank deposit to avoid federal reporting requirements.

The Fresno resident testified earlier this year against co-defendant Michael Ruelas, 42, also a former CHP officer, who was convicted of stealing the drug from an evidence locker at the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement office over the July 4 holiday in 1997.

Previously convicted in the theft--the largest ever from a law enforcement agency in California--was the mastermind, Richard Wayne Parker, 47, a veteran state narcotics agent assigned to the Riverside office.

Parker is serving a life term. Ruelas, his half-brother, has not yet been sentenced. Also sentenced Wednesday was former Pima County (Ariz.) sheriff’s deputy James Tracy Strickler, who received a two-year prison term for knowing about the Riverside theft and failing to report the crime.

Though Strickler did not participate in the theft, federal prosecutors said that as a member of Parker’s ring, he stole small amounts of drugs and cash from the homes of suspected narcotics dealers.