In the NYPD’s latest failure, eight current and former officers were arrested and charged yesterday for agreeing to smuggle dirty guns into New York in exchange for thousands of dollars. This FBI sting operation is a black eye on the city’s war on illegal guns and New York gun laws in general. Ask Weezy; he can empathize with these cops, if he isn’t busy laughing at them.
Five current and three retired officers, many of whom worked in the same Brooklyn station house at some point, were arrested at their homes by feds for moving M-16’s, handguns and other assorted stolen goods across state lines. A New Jersey correction officer, an ex-NYC Sanitation Department officer and two of his flunkies are also primed to go down in flames.
The investigation started in 2009, after a protected informant attempted to have a ticket fixed in exchange for payment. He crossed paths with one of the cops, William Masso, leading to the beginning of a crooked business relationship. It began with trafficking cigarettes into New York, and would expand to include slot machines, clothing and handbags and finally firearms, all which were believed to be stolen. One of the cops even sold a shotgun to an undercover agent this past July.
Just last month, the same undercover agent paid 8 of the defendants $2,000 to $5,000 to move 22 guns from New Jersey to New York. Although the weapons couldn’t be used, the cops knew the serial numbers were scratched off, making them untraceable. The laundry list of charges include conspiracy to transport firearms across state lines, conspiracy to transport defaced firearms across state lines, conspiracy to sell firearms across state lines and conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property across state lines.
Not only is this incident an embarrassment to the Bloomberg administration’s crusade to keep illegal guns off the street, it’s another stain on the reputation of the NYPD. In just weeks, the department has suffered several blows to its credibility, including one asshole who got busted by the feds for insurance fraud and extortion in addition to getting caught dropping the N-bomb after bragging about falsely accusing a black man of resisting arrest. Let’s see if the NYPD deploys the “Gentleman’s Police Officer” and his community outreach efforts at Zuccotti Park for some much-needed good press while they dodge bullets.
[via The New York Times]
