Officers charged in gambling, drug ring

MIAMI, July 17 (UPI) -- A Miami-Dade County officer and an ex-jail guard have been arrested in Florida for alleged involvement in a cocaine and illegal gambling ring.

Michael King, a patrol officer in the Northside district of Miami-Dade was among some 20 suspects arrested Wednesday in a joint local and federal investigation, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

Authorities say King, 42, was heard 16 times on a wiretap taking illegal bets on basketball games, including from Marvin Coney, a former Miami-Dade County jail guard. King, a former narcotics investigator, also faces racketeering charges for his role in an organization allegedly headed by a man named Ricardo Munoz.

Detectives said on April 8 King pulled over a pickup truck driven by a Miami-Dade sergeant who told him he was doing undercover surveillance on a heroin drug operation. King then allegedly called Munoz to say: ``I just stopped one of my lieutenants at the corner watching ya'lls s--t, man.''

Also in April, detectives said they videotaped King, sitting in his green-and-white patrol car, giving out $450 in gambling winnings.