COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: General
Boasted his uniform shielded him, complained he wasn't paid enough
Carol Ann Alaimo, Arizona Daily Star
December 24, 2006
The Tucson military recruiter at the center of a major FBI cocaine stingclaimed to be a seasoned drug runner and thought his Army uniform would
keep him from getting caught, an FBI agent said in a recently unsealed
court record.
The recruiter also complained repeatedly to men he thought were Mexican
drug lords that he wasn't being paid enough for his criminal efforts, the
agent said.
FBI Special Agent Adam Radtke made the statements about former Army
National Guard recruiter Darius W. Perry in an October criminal complaint
seeking a warrant for Perry's arrest.
Perry, who stayed on the job as a Guard recruiter until May 2004, told an
undercover FBI informant in December 2001 "that he had been involved in
narcotics trafficking in the past," said Radtke, recounting a conversation
between Perry and the informant posing as a drug lord.
"I'm wearing the … (uniform), anything to make me safe, is going to make
your shit safe, is going to make us all happy. That's all I give a shit
about," Perry was quoted as saying.
The U.S. District Court record containing those statements was sealed until
recently. It was unsealed Dec. 19, after the Arizona Daily Star filed a
legal motion to get access to it.
Perry, 42, recruited in the Tucson area from 1996 to 2004. He was based for
most of that time at a Guard office at 7290 E. Broadway that covers at
least 19 local high schools. He retired honorably from the military in May.
He is one of nearly a dozen Tucson military recruiters from the National
Guard, Army and Marine Corps who were caught in the FBI sting called
Operation Lively Green, which ran in Southern Arizona from 2002 to 2004 and
was made public last year.
Perry has been identified in FBI testimony as the person whose actions
prompted agents to set up the sting.
Perry already was under investigation in late 2001 for reports that he was
taking bribes to fix the military aptitude test scores of new recruits,
Radtke testified in June at the military trial of another Lively Green
defendant.
During the test-fixing probe, Radtke said, Perry opened the trunk of his
recruiting vehicle and offered to sell cocaine to an undercover FBI informant.
Perry's lawyer, identified in court records as David A. Aguilar of Tucson,
did not return a call seeking comment on Friday. Perry also could not be
reached for comment.
On Dec. 14, Perry pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to one count of bribery,
extortion and conspiracy.
He admitted taking part in at least six cocaine runs in 2002 while wearing
his Army uniform and flashing his military ID to get the drugs past highway
checkpoints.
He also acknowledged recruiting at least six other National Guard members
to become part of the drug-running operation
Perry personally helped move more than 200 kilos, about 440 pounds, of
cocaine and was paid a total of $52,000 for his efforts, court records said.
That wasn't enough cash for him, said Radtke, the FBI agent.
After an August 2002 cocaine run in which Perry was paid $14,300, he
requested more money because he thought he'd only be a lookout that day but
instead, "I ended up going with them and transporting, " Radtke quoted Perry
as saying.
Two months later, after another cocaine run for which Perry was paid
$13,200, he again asked for "extra money because of the extra effort he was
expending," finding drivers for the drug-running vehicles, Radtke said.
Perry and the other corrupt recruiters remained on the job, with continuing
access to local schools, for months or years after the FBI first captured
them on videotape moving drugs, the Arizona Daily Star learned in a recent
investigation of court records and military employment data.
Recruiting officials who knew about the allegations said the FBI told them
to leave the recruiters in place so as not to jeopardize the sting.
FBI officials have said they can't comment because the probe is still in
progress but said risk assessments are normally done when public officials
suspected of corruption are allowed to stay on the job.
None of the recruiters are accused of giving drugs to students. What they
did in their off hours is unknown because the FBI did not have them under
constant surveillance.
The recruiters are among more than 60 government employees who have pleaded
guilty since May 2005 in the Lively Green case, one of the FBI's biggest
public corruption cases.
Sentencing is set for March 2007.
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