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SANTA FE, N.M. — Colfax County Sheriff’s Deputy Vidal Sandoval traded his badge for handcuffs in March 2015, when federal law enforcement agents running a sting arrested him for escorting them up the interstate to Colorado with cash and cocaine in exchange for a percentage.

On Wednesday, the onetime 20-year law enforcement officer stood in civilian khakis next to his attorney Billy Blackburn and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve Yarbrough to three counts in a federal indictment – unusual because defendants often reach agreements with the government before they plead guilty.

“I spoke to Mr. Sandoval on numerous occasions and we decided it was in his best interest to just go forward,” Blackburn told Yarbrough. The charges are theft of government property and attempted possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Sullivan said that although Sandoval was trained in proper seizures and knew he couldn’t keep money from drug stops, he stopped motorists on Interstate 25 in December 2014 who were Spanish speakers and were carrying $8,000.

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Sandoval called a friend, former Springer Police Chief Leon Herrera, who talked to the men by phone posing as a federal drug enforcement officer. Sandoval eventually pocketed $7,500 and gave them back $500. He later learned they were undercover officers and the money was from the FBI, Sullivan said.

Herrera pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal officer and was sentenced to probation

In a January 2015 incident, Sandoval took more than $1,000 in cash, and in late February 2015, there was a similar incident in which Sandoval got into the supposed drug trafficker’s car and took $5,000.

Then, believing the man was going to Colorado with what turned out to be 2 kilos of cocaine and 3 kilos of sham cocaine, Sandoval escorted him across the state line and got another $10,000, Sullivan said.

Blackburn confirmed that Sandoval’s plea was under an aiding and abetting theory of culpability that viewed Sandoval’s acts as being in concert with the drug smugglers.

A forfeiture provision in the indictment requires him to give back the $19,500 taken in the three incidents.

The penalty on the charges ranges from five to 40 years, but defendants who plead guilty get credit in the scoring system used by Probation to calculate the prison time the sentencing judge should impose.

Blackburn plans to argue various issues when the sentencing takes place before U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera, including “exceptional circumstances” he proffered Wednesday to Yarbrough.

Sandoval, 46, is now the sole caretaker for his two junior high-age children and has been employed since his release from custody a few days after his initial arrest. He is also a military veteran of Desert Storm, Blackburn said.

“He’s doing everything he can to prepare for what may happen down the road,” he said.

The federal and New Mexico State Police investigation began after a routine traffic stop on Interstate 40 near Grants revealed that the men stopped had been pulled over on I-25 near Raton hours earlier. They had marijuana they said had been legally purchased in Colorado.