By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
An ex-ATF agent from Tulsa, Ok., pleaded guilty Thursday to drug trafficking. He also admitted conspiring to fabricate a drug buy in 2007 that wrongfully sent a father and daughter to federal prison.
Ex-ATF agent Brandon J. McFadden, 34, who left the agency last year, pleaded guilty to distributing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, authorities said. He had joined ATF in 2002 after working as a cop in Lubbock, Tex.
He also admitted that he and Tulsa cop Jeff Henderson made up a non-existent drug buy in 2007 that sent Larry Barnes and his daughter to prison. The two were released from prison last summer as a result of an ongoing federal public corruption investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
McFadden faces a prison sentence of not less than five years and not more than 40 and a fine of up to $2 million. Sentencing is set for July 28.
“Officer Henderson and I stole drugs and money, delivered drugs, falsified reports, gave false testimony and used informant Ryan Logsdon to sell drugs,” McFadden told U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank McCarthy in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, according to the Tulsa World newspaper.
Henderson has been suspended from the department, but has not been charged, the paper said. He has denied wrongdoing.
