From MSNBC.com

Sgt. Ronald Watts, 48, and Officer Kallat Mohammed, 47, were arrested Sunday night on federal charges alleging they stole $5,200 in government undercover funds on Nov. 21, 2011, from a homeless man who claimed to be a drug courier but was working as an FBI informant, reported NBCChicago.com.

This is yet another story of unintended consequences due to the immoral and illegal war on drugs, corrupt cops. In these bad economic times, where police officers are getting laid off everywhere, what officers couldn’t resist taking a little extra cash from drug informants?

According to the news story, the officers had arrested the homeless man before and was using him to learn when drug money was being transported

Three days before the Nov. 21 incident, in a conversation that was wiretapped, the informant told Watts where he could come pick it up, CBS2 in Chicagoreported. Watts allegedly then arranged for Mohammed to intercept the money, reported CBS2.

When Mohammed came to pick up the bag from the informant, it contained the cash and a court-authorized tracking device, according to the criminal complaint. Video surveillance then purportedly showed the informant asking Watts for a cut, and Watt allegedly handing over $400 for tipping them off.

“Who always takes care of you?” Watts allegedly asked as he handed the homeless man the money.

“You do, Watts,” the informant responded, according to the complaint.

You have to ask yourself, would this happen if drugs were not illegal, and the cops were not arresting people who just wanted to alter their mood? This certainly would not be happening if drugs were made in controlled environments by professionals instead of cut and sold by Joe Blow down the street who is only looking out for himself.

We wouldn’t have these corrupt cops who take payments from drug cartels to look the other way, who are afraid to even speak out against the War on Drugs for fear of losing their job. And here we are, nearly a century later, these two men are facing up to a decade in prison because they became corrupted. Who knows, they were probably upstanding persons before they became involved in this operation. I can’t attest to that though.

But along comes the down economy, the drug busts, the laundered money and the criminals who take a deal by becoming informants only to get taken advantage of by the police because they know they are afraid of going back to jail.

If convicted, Watts and Mohammed could face up to 10 years of prison and a fine of $250,000, said the Chicago division of the FBI.

They were released on $10,000 bond each after appearing in federal court Monday, and are scheduled for a status hearing on Feb. 21, NBCChicago.com reported.

Calls from msnbc.com to the Chicago division of the FBI were not immediately returned

It will be interesting to see if they get off lighter than the proposed sentencing