INFORMANTS INVOLVED IN BUSTS MAY TAKE PLEA DEALS

Two Dallas police confidential informants involved in dozens of
questionable drug busts are prepared to cooperate with investigators while
negotiating plea bargains, according to court records.

Enrique Martinez Alonso and Jose Guadalupe Ruiz-Serrano, who have been held
on unrelated immigration violation charges since early this year, are at
the center of an FBI investigation into how dozens of people were arrested
and charged with drug trafficking based on evidence that was later
determined to be gypsum.

A third police informant, Reyes Roberto Rodriguez, also faces immigration
charges. All three of the men are Mexican citizens and in the country
illegally, authorities have said.

Background Coverage of the ongoing investigation from The Dallas Morning
News and WFAA.

Federal authorities have declined to say if any of the three are telling
authorities how the drug busts were carried out. An attorney for Mr.
Rodriguez said last month that his client was cooperating.

According to a government motion to delay Mr. Alonso's trial until Monday,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Romero cited the fact that he was "negotiating
a plea agreement which may include the defendant's cooperation in a complex
civil rights investigation." The motion was granted.

Mr. Alonso's attorney, Arch McColl, did not return phone calls this week.

Mr. Alonso was paid more than $200,000 for his help in making what were
described as some of the largest drug busts by the department.

A separate motion filed by Mr. Ruiz's attorney, seeking to delay trial for
an unspecified period of time, said: "The defendant is anticipating a plea
bargain."

Previously, attorney William Nellis has said his client did nothing wrong
in connection with the faulty drug busts and had little to offer
investigators. Mr. Nellis said two weeks ago that Mr. Ruiz had not spoken
further with FBI agents and did not wish to.

Mr. Nellis said in the motion that government prosecutors suggested he
request the delay "due to a newly developed investigation that the
defendant may be involved in." Mr. Nellis did not return calls this week.

All of the motions were filed earlier this month but did not appear in the
public record until this week. The U.S. attorney's office in Dallas, under
direction from the U.S. Department of Justice, recused its prosecutors this
week from the case. Federal authorities have declined to cite a reason.

The criminal section of the Justice Department's civil rights division is
to take over for the local office on all matters related to the FBI
investigation.