Michael Winter

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Five San Francisco police officers and one former cop have been indicted on corruption charges ranging from drug dealing, theft and civil rights violations that emerged from security video, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Police Chief Greg Suhr said the five active-duty officers were immediately suspended without pay and had their weapons confiscated.

"Our department is shaken," Suhr, who took office after the scandal broke in 2011, said at a news conference. "This is as serious as an issue as I can recall in my time in the department."

Because of the shadow cast on the officers' conduct beginning in 2009, local prosecutors have had to drop about 100 criminal cases they were involved in.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released the videos in 2011.

Prosecutors said the undercover officers allegedly entered rooms without warrants, intimidated the occupants and stole drugs, money, computers and other property.

The grand jury indictments, which were handed up Wednesday, named Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, of Pleasant Hil; Edmond Robles, 46, of Danville; Arshad Razzak, 41, and Richard Yick, 37, both of San Francisco; Raul Eric Elias, 44, of San Mateo, and Reynaldo Vargas, 45, of Palm Desert, Calif., who was fired in 2012.

Furminger, Robles and Vargas were charged with dealing marijuana, stealing money and drugs seized during investigations and civil rights conspiracy.

Razzak, Yick and Elias are accused of using a master key to illegally enter rooms at low-income hotels and conspiring to threaten and intimidate the occupants. Razzak and Yick also falsified their incident reports, the indictment states.

Vargas was due in federal court Thursday, the other five Friday.

Adachi said the indictments were "confirmation that the constitutional rights of San Franciscans matter. I commend the U.S. Attorney for taking seriously the reports from ordinary citizens who had been humiliated, stolen from and hurt by police officers sworn to protect them."

"For years, our clients told us their rights were being violated, and for years we raised the issues in front of judges," he said in a statement. "Ultimately, it took a federal investigation to hold accountable those who would violate the public trust."

Suhr reiterated what he said the day he was sworn in as chief when asked about the investigation: "There is no place in the San Francisco Police Department — and shouldn't be in any police department — for a dishonest cop."

"Should these officers be proven guilty of any of the charges as alleged, I will seek immediate termination and expect that the Police Commission will agree and act expeditiously to make that happen," he said in a statement.

Suhr said federal authorities told him they "found no evidence that the conduct of these few officers, as alleged, is an indicator of a larger "systemic concern" within the department.

The head of the police officers' union expressed disappointment with the indictments, saying in a statement that the charges were "apparently based on the questionable testimony of unreliable informant witnesses."

While acknowledging that "these are nonetheless serious charges," Martin Halloran, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, pointed out that "federal grand juries only hear one side of the story."