I recently wrote about an NYPD officer's admission in court testimony that police regularly plant drugs on innocent people to meet arrest quotas. Now, the NYPD is wrapped up in another scandal. Eight of them are charged with participating in a gun-smuggling ring. From Reuters:
Five of the men charged were active-duty officers, two were on active duty for part of the time they were accused of involvement in the schemes, and one was retired. All worked in Brooklyn, most in the same precinct.
The goods smuggled had a street value of more than $1 million, prosecutors said, and the scheme was carried out over the past year.
The details are shocking:
The complaint accused the defendants of transporting 20 firearms including three M-16 rifles, a shotgun and 16 handguns across state lines from New Jersey to New York. The majority of the weapons had obliterated or altered serial numbers.
The guns were provided to the men in a sting operation in New Jersey by an undercover law enforcement agent and had been rendered inoperable by the FBI. The guns were delivered to another undercover agent in New York.
The corruption may be particularly embarrassing to Mayor Bloomberg, who has helped lead a national campaign against illegal firearms.
According to Reuters,
Bloomberg, who helped found the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said that if the charges against the policemen proved true, “it would be a disgraceful and deplorable betrayal of the public trust.”
“We will continue doing everything possible to take illegal guns off the street, and to bring justice to anyone who seeks to sell or carry guns illegally,” he said in a statement.
Read more here.
