BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – US Army Staff Sergeant Daniel Rosas was deployed to Colombia as part of the large US mission to fight drug trafficking, but before long he found the lure of cocaine money too hard to resist.

He formed a smuggling ring involving US soldiers that was eventually busted, deeply embarrassing US officials.

A deposition obtained by The Associated Press shows Rosas’ scheme was so amateurish that at one point he made a deal with a stranger he met in a Mexican nightclub bathroom and even saw a US$140,000 (euro112,000) payment vanish in the mail.

The authenticity of Rosas’ sworn statement was recently confirmed by a Colombian official familiar with the case.

The document provides for the first time a detailed look into how the drug ring operated and shows that, with stunning ease, it was able to send 170 pounds (77 kilograms) of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, subject to only cursory searches at best from US Customs agents.

“They never suspected that any military or civilian personnel would bring back contraband,” Rosas said in the March 31 sworn statement to military investigators at Fort Bliss, Texas. “They did not use dogs, they very rarely checked our carry-on bags but never checked our equipment that was loaded on the pallets.”

US Ambassador William Wood said in the wake of the arrests on March 28 that US soldiers leaving Colombia would be subjected to stricter searches. The case infuriated many Colombians who said President Alvaro Uribe should revoke treaties granting immunity to US soldiers serving in Colombia.

Rosas, 23, of McAllen, Texas, is behind bars awaiting court-martial along with two other US soldiers.

A fourth soldier, Spc Francisco Rosa, pleaded guilty on August 10 to using, possessing and distributing cocaine and making a false official statement. He was sentenced to five years in prison, demoted to the rank of private and will receive a bad conduct discharge.

Rosas told military investigators he got involved in drug smuggling in the summer of 2003 when he struck up a friendship with Angel Gutierrez, a bartender at the officer’s club in the Apiay military base southeast of Bogota, where he was stationed. Rosas said Gutierrez told him he could hold cocaine and drive it onto the base through the front gate.

“Greed overtook my state-of-mind. I saw an opportunity and took advantage of it,” Rosas said, according to the sworn statement.

Rosas said he and two other Americans on the base – Spc Rolando Sandoval and a civilian defence contractor identified only as Jake – pooled their money to buy about nine pounds (four kilograms) of cocaine from Gutierrez for US$12,000 (euro9,600). Sandoval left the military before Rosas’ arrest and it is unclear what happened to him and Jake.

Jake smuggled the cocaine to the United States in August 2003, then headed to Las Vegas to try to sell some of it – but promptly disappeared.

“We never saw him again … we never received any money from Jake,” Rosas said.

When Rosas returned to Texas within a few weeks, he tried to sell the remaining two pounds (one kilogram). That amount normally fetches about US$25,000 (euro20,000) in the United States, but Rosas didn’t know where to turn.

“I went to Juarez, Mexico, and while in the bathroom of a club I saw a guy snorting cocaine,” Rosas said. He eventually sold the cocaine to the man for US$6,500 (euro5,000) at a Taco Bell in El Paso, Texas.

The money didn’t last long.

“I spent $3,000 on partying and stuff of that nature,” the soldier said.

On his next tour in Colombia, Rosas said he recruited three US soldiers – Rosa, Staff Sergeant Victor Portales and Staff Sergeant Kevin G Irizarry-Melendez – and they began smuggling much larger quantities of cocaine, according to the sworn statement.

They wrapped sheets of fabric softener and plastic wrap around the cocaine, placed it inside zip-lock bags then put them inside coffee boxes.

The drug shipments were loaded onto pallets with other gear then put aboard US Air Force transport planes heading to Texas.

Once, two coffee boxes containing 35 pounds (16 kilograms) of cocaine vanished after they arrived at Fort Bliss. Rosas said he suspects a private working at the hangar found the cocaine and stole it.

Meanwhile, Rosas found connections in the drug-trafficking underworld in the United States. But that presented new problems.

One drug dealer, identified only as Gustavo, mailed US$200,000 (euro160,000) to Rosas’ El Paso apartment in four boxes as payment for cocaine, but Rosas was not present to pick up two of the boxes, and they were sent to a forwarding address Gustavo had provided.

Gustavo told Rosas he had made up the forwarding address. The two boxes were never found.

“I do not know where the boxes were sent to, nor where the money is at now,” Rosas told the army investigators. “So basically, somebody received $140,000.”

The sworn statement suggests informants finally broke up the smuggling operation.

Rosas said he shipped 134 pounds (60 kilograms) of cocaine between July 2003 and March 2005 to the United States and sold it for about $260,000 (euro207,000). He said Irizarry-Melendez smuggled another 35 pounds (16 kilograms), while the others mainly fronted money to buy the drugs.

Asked by the investigators how he felt after being caught, Rosas replied: “Disgraced, unfaithful, disloyal, saddened and I wish I never did it.”