An ex-NYPD officer admitted last week that the force regularly busts innocent people on bogus drug charges to meet arrest requirements.
Eight police officers have been arrested in total in the landmark drug case in which the cops are accused of planting drugs and making false arrests.
In 2008, Jose Colon and his brother Maximo were arrested at a Queens by undercover detectives who accused them of selling cocaine.
The Dominican immigrants, who knew they had done nothing wrong, were cleared of all charges a year later by a bar security camera.
The footage showed that the brothers were framed by the very detectives who arrested them.
The case resulted in two officers' arrest and become the basis for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, which the NYPD later settled for $300,000.
In testimony obtained by the New York Daily News, former narcotics detective Stephen Anderson said he was doing a favour for fellow officer Henry Tavarez, who was behind on drug arrests.
The News reported that Mr Anderson admitted to giving Tavarez the drugs he allegedly planted to bust the Colon brothers.
Mr Anderson said: 'Tavarez was ... worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case.'
He added: 'I had decided to give [Tavarez] the drugs to help him out so that he could say he had a buy.'
The NYPD did not respond to requests by the Daily News for comment.
Further testimony by Mr Anderson indicates that the scandal went up and down the ranks.
He said: 'It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators.'
Anderson also testified that there was a 'no remorse' attitude about what the officers were up to.
'It's almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they're going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway.'
© Daily Mail, London |
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