Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: Whippit <[REDACTED] at [cs.indiana.edu]>
Subject: DEA agent pleads guilty to stealing $700,000
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 22:34:52 GMT

Today's News:

        MIAMI (UPI) -- One of the Drug Enforcement Administration agents
involved in the 1989 arrest of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has
pleaded guilty to stealing $700,000 in another case.
        Rene De La Cova, charged with keeping money he received in an
undercover sting operation, is expected to be sentenced to two years in
prison with no parole under a plea agreement.
        ``The information alleges that on or about July 17, 1993, De La Cova,
acting in an undercover capacity as part of a narcotics money laundering
investigation, received $700,000 in United States currency which he kept
for his own use and benefit,'' U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said in a
prepared statement.
        Coffey said De La Cova has resigned and has made full restitution of
the money.
        De La Cova, 43, a 12-year veteran of the DEA and a group supervisor in
Fort Lauderdale, supervised agents in the money laundering operation.
The case reportedly is one of the largest corruption cases involving a
DEA supervisor.
        De La Cova's wife, Theresa, was also a DEA agent and also has
resigned. Investigators said she was not involved in taking the funds.
        Rene De La Cova was stationed in Panama from 1987 until 1989 and was
one of the agents who escorted Noriega to the United States where the
deposed dictator was convicted for drug trafficking and sentenced to 40
years in prison.