Three police informants who set up fake drug busts in Texas were sentenced to between 33 and 41 months in federal prison Thursday. As a result of their actions, dozens of immigrants were falsely charged with crimes.

You would think the informants would have zero credibility after admitting they faked the drug busts. You'd be wrong. All three got lighter sentences for agreeing to testify against others in the scandal. The three testified against the cop they were working for. The cop went to trial and was acquitted. Yet the informants still got a sentence break in their cases for their "truthful" testimony in the cop's case.

In 2001, the men fooled police into paying them more than $275,000 for helping nab drug dealers. They arranged drug deals but kept the "buy" money supplied by police. More than two dozen people, mostly Hispanics, were jailed after the men planted gypsum powder and passed it off as cocaine during the busts.

In the federal criminal trial of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark De La Paz, the trio testified that they duped the officer into believing the drugs were real when he made many of the arrests. De La Paz was acquitted in November of six federal charges in the fake-drug case.

One of the informants was paid $225,000 by the cops for setting up the fake busts. So he got a sentence break and $225k. Who said crime doesn't pay?