Sept. 23, 2002 – A former Narcotics Strike Force agent pleaded guilty in District Court on St. Croix Monday to charges of racketeering and drug trafficking.
Esbond DeGrasse was one of four persons arrested on drug-related charges after a federal grand jury on St. Croix indicted them on Sept. 5. The indictments capped an investigation by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the V.I. Police Department.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, DeGrasse faces up to 25 years in jail and up to $4 million in fines.
Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office refused to say if the former agent's guilty plea was part of a plea bargain. DeGrasse and current NSF officers Jay Watson and George Osborne were charged with misuse of police powers, destroying government property, extortion, drug trafficking and civil rights violations. A Corrections Bureau officer, Antonio Petersen, was charged with possession with intention to distribute cocaine.
Investigators told the grand jury the men were involved from 1996 through 2000 in robbing drug dealers and suspected drug dealers of money and cocaine, then recruiting other dealers to sell the drugs on the street.
Osborne and Watson pleaded not guilty to the charges against them at an arraignment last Thursday. Petersen pleaded not guilty to the possession charge at a separate arraignment.
U.S. Attorney David Nissman said DeGrasse faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for cocaine trafficking and a maximum 15 years for racketeering.
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