Former Clayton County Police officer pleads guilty to drug trafficking

A police officer with the Clayton County Police Department assigned to the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force this week pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine.

Dwayne Penn faces ten years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.

According to the feds, the charges, and other information presented in court: In August 2013, Penn, who was employed with the Clayton County Police Department at the time, conspired with Adrian Austin, an Atlanta-based drug dealer, to use Penn’s official position as a police officer to stage a fake traffic stop of a car that he and Austin believed would contain six kilograms of cocaine, conduct a fake arrest of the car’s occupant, seize the cocaine for themselves, and then sell the cocaine, sharing their ill-gotten gains.

The person whom Penn and Austin sought to recruit for this corrupt endeavor was cooperating with federal law enforcement and agreed to record his/her meetings with Penn and Austin.

“This Office is committed to protecting the public’s trust in law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement. “Penn was a drug dealer with a badge. He used his official position to traffic drugs and now faces a significant sentence for his betrayal of trust.”

On August 28, 2013, Penn was terminated from the Clayton County Police Department and the Marshals Service Task Force. Austin, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Jan. 14 and also faces 10 years in prison and five years of supervised release.