Wayne Jenkins from behind bars: 'I sold drugs as a dirty cop'

BBC ^ | Sep 29 | By Jessica Lussenhop

[RandFan]

For the past four years, Jessica Lussenhop has been reporting on the rise and fall of a corrupt squad of Baltimore police officers. Just as she was completing her podcast series on the story, she got a very unexpected call from prison.

I'm standing in my pandemic "radio studio" - aka the closet in my apartment - surrounded by hangers holding button-up shirts and dresses. I'm staring at my cell phone in the dark. It's propped up on top of a suitcase sitting on top of a plastic tub, and I'm holding my recorder and microphone at the ready.

When the phone rings, I put the call on speaker and hear a robotic, pre-recorded female voice: "You have a prepaid call. You will not be charged for this call. This call is from…"

A human voice breaks in: "Wayne Jenkins."

"...an inmate in a federal prison," the robot finishes.

Former Baltimore Police Department Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, currently inmate number 62928-037 at a federal prison in Kentucky, is on the line. Until this point, I'd only heard Jenkins on secretly taped FBI recordings, wiretapped phone calls, body camera footage and at the hearing in June 2018 when a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison. It was surreal hearing his voice, talking to me.

I've been reporting on Jenkins, and the elite Gun Trace Task Force squad he once led, for nearly four years. He and six members of that unit now sit in federal prison for crimes including conspiracy, racketeering and robbery, all committed under the guise of legitimate police work.

They stole drugs and cash, sold seized narcotics and guns back on the street, planted evidence on people, even committed home invasions.

[RandFan]

Long article

Bookmark.

[caww]

Not any worse than Politicians, those in the Medical Community, Banking, Judges....and any profession where the greed for more and opportunity to take it surfaces... for some more than others.

[Lurker]

Dirty cops should be executed.

L