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As a prison guard, Brett M. Riddle likely saw hundreds of inmates stripped of their belts and shoelaces as they entered custody. On Friday, he became one of them.

The former Arizona Department of Corrections officer will spend seven months on the other side of the bars, now a prisoner himself after being sentenced Friday in connection with an FBI corruption sting.

"You will certainly want to let them (prison officials) know that you worked for the Department of Corrections, for your own protection," U.S. District Court Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson told Riddle, who moments later removed his belt and shoelaces as U.S. marshals prepared to take him away.

Riddle also was fined $3,000, the amount of bribe money he accepted to run 66 pounds of cocaine in March 2004.

He was one of several defendants sentenced in recent days in the Operation Lively Green sting, in which the FBI set up a fake Mexican drug cartel to see who would take payoffs to run cocaine while in uniform.

Dozens of Southern Arizona prison guards, military personnel and other public officials took the bait and now are back in court receiving their punishments.

Doyle R. Morrison, an Iraq war veteran and former Army National Guard sergeant, also was among those sentenced Friday.

"I failed the Army, I failed the United States and I failed my family. All I can do is apologize from the bottom of my heart," said Morrison, clutching a Bible as he addressed the judge.

Morrison was an Army National Guard recruiter in Tucson but was assigned to the California National Guard at the time of his crime.

He also was sentenced to seven months in prison and ordered to repay the $2,000 bribe he took for running about 132 pounds of cocaine in August 2002.

Jorgenson, the sentencing judge, said Morrison's conduct was especially troubling because he once was assigned as a National Guard representative on a counternarcotics law-enforcement task force in Southern Arizona.

As such, he had inside knowledge about the methods police use to detect and combat drug trafficking.

Two other ex-Army National Guard members also received prison terms on Friday.

Benjamin L. De La Garza, formerly a private first class, took part in the same drug run as Morrison. He also received a seven-month sentence and repaid the $3,000 bribe he received.

Raymond Segala, a former active-duty Air Force member, was an Army National Guard sergeant at the time of his crime. He received a 10-month sentence for running 13 pounds of cocaine in October 2002 and must repay the $3,000 bribe he accepted for it.

All the defendants received government-offered plea deals that guaranteed none would serve more than five years in prison.

Also sentenced on Thursday were two more former state corrections officers:

David Salazar received 10 months and a $2,000 fine for running 88 pounds of cocaine in August 2003.

Rafael Hernandez was sentenced to one year and eight months and fined $7,000 for taking part in a 44-pound cocaine run in March 2003 and for recruiting one of his co-workers to run drugs.

Several more sentencings are due next week.