Ex-Philly police officer sentenced to 15 years

A former Philadelphia police officer convicted of tipping off his half-brother about a heroin trafficking investigation has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the sentence imposed Wednesday in federal court on 52-year-old Rafael Cordero was more severe than the term sought by prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond said Cordero helped “a rather large-scale drug trafficker who was killing the very city he was sworn to protect.”

Cordero was fired after authorities said he told his half-brother about a surveillance camera aimed at a garage used by drug gangs. He told the judge that he erred by viewing his relative as his brother and not “as a drug dealer.”

After sentencing, defense attorney Jack McMahon Jr. called the sentence “unspeakably cruel.”