SandBoxUtah: Courthouse News "Feds Charge Army Men in Murder-Drug Sting"

Cameron Langford:
"LAREDO, Texas (CN) - An Army officer offered to supply guns and training to the Zetas drug cartel and kill rival drug dealers in exchange for money and cocaine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in announcing the arrest of the officer and five other men.
    
Kevin Corley, 29, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was arrested Saturday afternoon in Laredo and charged in a drug trafficking conspiracy and murder-for-hire plot, prosecutors said in a statement.
    
The U.S. Attorney's Office did not state Corley's rank, nor military assignment. But the Colorado Springs Gazette reported on Monday that 1st Lt. Kevin Corley was discharged from the Army this month. The Gazette did not state whether the discharge was honorable, or why he was discharged.
    
The Gazette reported that Kevin Corley and co-defendant Sgt. Samuel Walker were both assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs.
    
Also arrested Saturday in Laredo were Walker, 28; and Shavar Davis, 29, of Denver, Colo., prosecutors said.
    
Arrested in South Carolina were Marcus Mickle, 20, and Calvin Epps, 26, both of Hopkins, S.C. The sixth defendant, Mario Corley, 40, of Saginaw, Texas, was arrested in Charleston, S.C., according to the U.S. attorney's statement.
    
"The investigation began in January 2011, when Mickle began negotiations with whom he thought were members of the Los Zetas Cartel, actually undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, to purchase marijuana in return for stolen weapons," prosecutors said in the statement. "The criminal complaint indicates that as they began discussions about the distribution of marijuana in the Columbia, S.C., area, Mickle and Epps allegedly told undercover agents about a friend in the military who could provide military weapons to them.
    
"The agents were later introduced to Corley, who allegedly identified himself as an active duty officer in the Army responsible for training soldiers. He offered to provide tactical training for cartel members and to purchase weapons for the cartel under his name."
    
Over the next several months, Corley communicated with the undercover agents about the services he could provide the cartel using his military training, prosecutors said.
   
"According to the criminal complaint, Corley allegedly mailed an Army tactics battle book to the agents, thoroughly explained military tactics and told undercover agents he could train 40 cartel members in two weeks," prosecutors said....." (Read more?  Click title)