Edwin Pagan III, a former Coral Gables police officer, will be spared a risky trial in a corruption case that tarnished the Drug Enforcement Administration after he pleaded guilty on Friday to a minor felony of failing to report the crime to federal authorities.
Pagan, 53, now faces about a year in prison, but his future could have been bleaker if he had been convicted at an upcoming trial of the more serious charges — conspiracy, bribery, fraud and perjury.
Pagan began his law enforcement career with the Coral Gables Police Department in 1997 and worked as an officer and detective, but he also spent a decade as a deputized agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration…