TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has threatened to throw out the guilty plea of a veteran U.S. narcotics agent who conspired with a Colombian cartel. The unexpected twist came Wednesday in Tampa federal court and could derail one of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most egregious misconduct cases. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell was expected to sentence Jose Irizarry on money laundering charges but refused to do so over what she called a “totally unacceptable” legal dispute. At issue is a disagreement over whether the money Irizarry took from undercover accounts amounted to a misuse of government funds or the laundering of drug proceeds.
