By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A Fulton County sheriff’s deputy in Atlanta fell for an FBI sting that has been played out before around the country targeting crooked cops.
Anthony Atwater, 33, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty Wednesday to corruption and drug offenses after he provided police protection for people he thought were drug dealers, but were actually undercover FBI agents.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, Atwater received $4,000 earlier this year to provide armed protection for the undercover FBI agents posing as drug dealers.
His services included providing armed protection for the fake cocaine shipments while he was in uniform. He also had agreed to intervene if the drug dealers were stopped by police.
The FBI sting has been pulled off on different occasions including in Detroit in the 1990s when the FBI busted several Detroit and suburban cops, along with the common-law brother-in-law of then Mayor Coleman A. Young, who helped recruit the crooked cops.
“This former deputy took money to protect men he thought were drug dealers at the expense of the public he was sworn to protect,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement. “He even wore his sheriff’s uniform and weapon while witnessing and protecting what he believed to be a major cocaine deal. Today he admitted he is guilty of this reprehensible conduct.”
“Rogue and corrupt conduct such as former Fulton County Deputy Sheriff Atwater’s, if left unchecked, undermines that much valued public trust and make the work of other law enforcement officers much more difficult,” Brian D. Lamkin, head of the Atlanta FBI, said in a statement.
