FIVE police officers in Los Angeles stand accused of pursuing a four-year armed robbery spree, using squad cars, uniforms and badges to make the brazen heists look like official raids.

At least two men were shot with stun guns during the robberies, while another was beaten with a police baton, had a gun stuffed into his mouth and was burnt with a cigarette lighter. The five men, working with as many as fifteen accomplices, including a professional female boxer, stole 320kg (700lb) of marijuana and 50kg of cocaine, as well as cars, firearms and jewellery.

The gang used Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) 0surveillance tactics to keep a look out for police or witnesses, and restrained victims with standard-issue handcuffs.

In one instance, the thieves, confident they would not be caught, even identified themselves as LAPD as they stole television sets from a lorry. Their total haul has been valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly more.

The case, which resembles the plot to the Hollywood film Training Day, is yet another scandal for the LAPD, infamous around the world for the videotaped beating of Rodney King that led to the Los Angeles riots in 1992. The police force has also yet to recover from the so-called Rampart scandal in 1998, which resulted in nearly 100 criminal convictions being overturned because of widespread corruption.

According to documents filed in court this week, the latest scandal emerged as the result of a confession from Ruben Palomares, 34, a former LAPD officer currently serving 15 years in prison for drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Palomares has apparently become a born-again Christian in jail, and is trying to make amends for his sins. The officer was never, however, the typical police recruit: before joining the LAPD in 1993, he was a Golden Gloves boxer who fought with such legends as Oscar de la Hoya and Shane Mosley. Because of his youthful appearance, Palomares was assigned by LAPD chiefs to a juvenile narcotics unit, where he investigated drug-pushing high school students. He was then transferred to the LAPD’ s notoriously corrupt Rampart division, also on narcotics duty.

“He’s decided to step forward and try to see that justice is done,” said Kevin McKesson, the lawyer acting for Palomares, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “He’s trying to get right with God.” Although Palomares hopes that his co-operation will reduce his sentence, he could still face a life sentence if he admits the heists.

Two of the four police officers working with Palomares were also members of the LAPD, while two were from the nearby city of Long Beach. The fifth was a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, who now works as a prison guard at the California Correctional Institution.

One of the LAPD officers has since been fired for unrelated misconduct while the other has resigned. The Long Beach officers, meanwhile, are still working, although they have temporarily been given desk duties.

Palomares was first apprehended by federal investigators while trying to buy 10kg of cocaine from undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents in San Diego in 2001. Under his current plea arrangement with federal investigators, Palomares can only get a reduction in his sentence if he is found to have been truthful and provided “substantial assistance” to their investigation. According to some reports, his claims have already been corroborated.

The LAPD is struggling to improve its image after a string of corruption scandals in the 1990s. In addition to the Rampart scandal, named after a beat that covers the most crime-ridden streets in Los Angeles, one officer, David Mack, even became a suspect in the 1997 murder of the East Coast rap star, Biggie Smalls, otherwise known as The Notorious B.I.G.

The LAPD is also investigating two incidents this year: the beating of an unarmed black man with an officer’s metal flashlight and the fatal shooting of a burglary suspect outside a high school. Both incidents were broadcast live on television.

In a sign that the LAPD still has a lot of work to do before it can escape its corrupt past, Palomares carried out most of his robberies while under investigation for his potential role in the Rampart scandal, for which he was never convicted.

After pleading guilty to the San Diego drug charges last year, Palomares said he had turned to theft after being sent on disability leave for a shoulder injury.

While off work, he became addicted to alcohol and pain killers. He said he needed the money, made by selling the stolen drugs on the black market, for his five young children. “I made the worst mistake of my life,” said Palomares at his sentencing. “I turned away from everything I knew to be true and steadfast, a decision I will regret every day for the rest of my life.”

Palomares’s wife, also an LAPD officer, is not thought to have been involved in any of the robberies.

The Rampart scandal was triggered by the arrest in 1998 of an LAPD officer called Rafael Perez on charges of stealing cocaine from a police evidence room.

As evidence against him mounted, he agreed a deal with prosecutors in which he implicated 70 fellow officers, resulting in 1,500 arrests being reviewed. Investigators later accused many officers of making false arrests and filing false arrest reports.

L.A.P.D. BLUES

August 1965: LA policeman pulls over African American motorist Marquette Frye for suspected drink driving. A struggle ensues, sparking 6-day ‘Watts riots’, top left. 34 are killed and 1,100 injured, causing $100m of damage

April 1992: The acquittal of four white officers caught on camera beating African American motorist Rodney King sparks 3-day riot. 55 are killed, 2,300 injured and 1,100 buildings are destroyed

1998: Rampart corruption scandal implicates dozens of LA police officers for crimes included bank robbery, theft of confiscated cocaine, drug dealing, shootings, beatings, planting of evidence, false arrests, witness intimidation and perjury

June, 2004: LAPD officer caught on videotape striking African American car thief suspect Stanley Miller 11 times with a metal flashlight

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