John Abel Baca pulled up to the meeting in a Ferrari with a gram of cocaine in a medical glove.
The man he was there to meet was a customer, and Baca, an Inglewood police officer and the department’s union rep at the time, said he had a kilogram more of the product he could sell for $22,000.
But Baca wasn’t working an undercover case. Instead, the meeting in 2021 was being recorded by the FBI.
On Tuesday, Baca, 48, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine and ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
In a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Baca admitted he’d stolen drugs from Inglewood Police Department’s evidence room and sold them on the side for profit.
“Former officer Baca tarnished the badge and dishonored the majority of those who serve and protect our communities with integrity,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada echoed that sentiment in a statement, saying Baca “abused his position as a law enforcement officer to promote his drug trafficking activities.”
Baca bragged to a potential buyer in September 2020 that he stole narcotics and money during routine traffic stops, prosecutors said. He offered to sell “White China” heroin, an unlimited supply of black tar heroin and a kilogram of cocaine, according to his plea agreement. The buyer informed the FBI of what Baca was saying in February 2021.
The buyer, later identified as a confidential witness in court records, asked Baca what he should say if anyone asked where he got the cocaine.
Baca reportedly told him, “Tell them it came from f— Mexico,” according to court records.
Prosecutors focused on two meetings in their case against Baca.
In April 2021, Baca drove to a buyer’s home in his 2012 Ferrari FF with a small sample of cocaine in a medical glove. The meeting was recorded by federal agents, according to court records.
Afterward, the buyer gave the cocaine to the FBI. The product tested at 75% purity, prosecutors said.
In a follow up call, Baca arranged to sell the confidential witness a kilogram of cocaine. He met the buyer at his business on May 4, 2021. On that visit, he drove up in a Nissan Maxima with no license plates.
He delivered a brick of cocaine wrapped in a plastic bag and tape, which he carried in a Target shopping bag, according to court records. He asked the buyer for $22,000, which was provided by the FBI as part of their operation. Baca claimed he was making only $1,000 as part of the deal, but the government never recovered the cash.
Baca told a federal informant that he often traveled to Las Vegas to gamble at casinos and launder his money, according to court records.
Baca was also accused of recruiting a second person to help in his drug dealing. That person, Gerardo Ekonomo, 42, from South L.A., was arrested in Las Vegas in June 2021 with 3 kilograms of heroin in his car, prosecutors said.
According to federal prosecutors, Baca called Las Vegas police and tried to intervene in Ekonomo’s case. He claimed he was Ekonomo’s “handler” and suggested he “work the case off” by helping them.
Ekonomo was eventually charged with intent to distribute the heroin, and on Oct. 28, 2021, the FBI dug in his yard and found large quantities of drugs wrapped in black plastic, including 1,258 grams of fentanyl and roughly 462 grams of heroin, court records show. FBI agents also found evidence of a drug trafficking operation in his home.
Ekonomo claimed he worked for Baca as an informant and was authorized to transport the drugs to Las Vegas as part of a law enforcement operation, prosecutors said, but he also claimed ignorance of the drugs in the yard.
Prosecutors said Baca had $300,000 in his bank accounts and a similar amount in investments around the time of his arrest in October 2021. The amount of money in his accounts dwarfed his household income, prosecutors said. He also owned or partially owned multiple homes in California and Arizona, along with a 2018 Audi Q7, a 2001 Chevy pickup truck, and the Ferrari.
Baca offered a “sincere apology” in court, according to a statement from his attorney Victor Sherman.
He said he recognized that “he disgraced the police badge which he will live with for the rest of his life.”