A state police officer in Delaware pleaded guilty this week on charges he was involved in the armed robbery of a country club poker game last February.

He faces up to 50 years in prison for the heist.

According to media reports, the Delaware state trooper, Hyun Jin Kim, 27, of Dover, Delaware, USA, was one of about a dozen card players who were playing poker at the Wild Quail Golf & Country Club in Wyoming, Delaware, USA, on February 22, 2008, when the game was invaded by three shotgun-wielding bandits.

The bandits made the poker players lay down on the floor and place red pillow cases over their heads, before robbing them of credit cards, cell phones and about $10,000 in cash, media reports said.

The robbery turned out to be a set-up orchestrated by Kim, media reports said.

The bandits were apprehended after surveillance video at a nearby Wal-Mart showed Kim purchasing red pillow cases before the robbery, media reports said.

Kim then ratted out his accomplices, who committed the actual heist, media reports said.

Kim, a three-year veteran of the Delaware State Police who was fired upon his arrest, was charged with robbery, weapons possession, conspiracy and other crimes, media reports said.

He is to be sentenced in November, and faces up to 50 years behind bars for the incident, media reports said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)=A0=A0