Two Miami Dade cops who idolized Will Smith's Bad Boys movies have been jailed for a year after being caught in a cocaine sting.
Roderick Flowers, 29, and Keith Edwards, 31, were arrested last October after an undercover sting by the DEA.
They had agreed to act as bodyguards to protect a shipment of cocaine - or what they thought was cocaine but was actually fake and used by the DEA agents as part of their ruse.
The pair thought they were helping the Sinaloa Cartel and had been given $5,000 in advance for their roles. They boasted that they'd had SWAT training which they said could help them get the shipment safely through any kind of intervention.
The entire operation turned out to be a sting set up by the DEA. It was one of their undercovers sources who posed as a member of the Mexican cartel group formerly run by El Chapo.
Both Flowers and Edwards were arrested last October.
Roderick Flowers, 29, and Keith Edwards, 31, were arrested last October after an undercover sting by the DEA. The pair modeled themselves on Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's characters in the movie Bad Boys, posting photo collages like this on social media. Edwards posted this comparison on Instagram with the caption 'We ride together, we die together. Bad boys 4 life'
Another photo from the crooked cops' accounts. They thought they were giving security to the Sinaloa Cartel
They were sentenced in August after accepting a plea deal where they admitted conspiracy to distribute cocaine and agreed to do one year in prison, two years on supervised release.
Flowers' attorney David Weinstein said: 'He’s very satisfied with his sentence because it gives him the opportunity to continue with his life.'
in a plea agreement with prosecutor Frederic Shadley. They were sentenced in late August.
The pair had appeared to model themselves on the fictional Miami detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey, played by Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in the 1995 comedy movie.
Social media pictures show the two dressed as the two characters for Halloween 2019 alongside the caption 'We ride together. We die together. Bad Boys 4 Life' on Flowers' Instagram - where he also adopted the name 'Detective Mike Lowrey'.
Three other men were also arrested and charged over the fake drug bust. They are Manuel Carlos Hernandez and two accomplices Trevanti McLeod and Durojaiye Obafemi Monsuru Lawal.
The six-month sting began with a confidential source posing as a Mexican cartel member. They made contact with Hernandez several months back, reported the Miami Herald.
Flowers' attorney said he was grateful to have been given a plea deal because even though he can no longer work as a cop, he can 'continue with his life'
Hernandez, who ran Hernandez Investments in Davie, boasted to the source of laundering money for multiple clients, according to the criminal complaint.
He also told the source about his 'fat bank account' and that he planned to open businesses including a barbershop and a car wash as a front to wash the money, the complaint says.
Edwards is a former Army National Guard member and father of three.
The source then planned several money laundering deals involving drug money with Hernandez, Lawal and McLeod over the summer in meetings that were secretly recorded, the DEA says.
In July, Hernandez told them about one potential money laundering client - a Russian strip club owner - who he later said he learnt was an informant after making 'some calls to law enforcement connections' to vet them, it says.
In August, the source then asked Hernandez if his police sources could check a license plate for him through police databases.
Authorities said they later learned it was Flowers who carried this out.
Hernandez later boasted that Flowers and an unnamed cop cousin 'were on his payroll' and acted as 'security for money laundering activities,' according to the complaint.
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