NYPD officer allegedly steals guns and sells them on the streets
An NYPD police officer was arrested Thursday for allegedly stealing guns from his precinct and selling them on the streets.
Nicholas Mina, along with five co-conspirators, Ivan Chavez, Marcos Echeverria, Meryl Lebowitz, Jennifer Sultan, and a fifth person who is still on the loose are each charged with conspiracy and related crimes. we arrested and charges with conspiracy, grand larceny, sale of a firearm, and other crimes, according to EmpireStateNews.net.
Mina worked for the Ninth Precinct station house in the East Village. He allegedly stole the guns from the lockers of his co-workers and sold them to street buyers, according to NBC New York.
Mina and his conspirators were caught because one of the buyers was an undercover police officer.
Mina, who was part of the 24-hour security detail, was in charge of guarding the lockers after there had been a series of thefts to them. On April 22 he snuck out a weapon from the locker room, which is tightly watched. After that incident a sergeant was assigned to the duty and a security camera was installed to monitor the entryway and additional locks were installed on the lockers.
After an investigation conducted by NYPD Firearms Suppression Unit, Internal Affairs Bureau, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s, Mina was arrested.
“Guns, drugs, and corruption are a dangerous combination,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.,. “This defendant endangered the very public he took an oath to protect, at a time when gun violence is destroying lives every day. Thanks to the work of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, its Firearms Investigation Unit, and my Office’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit, we have taken these stolen guns off the street and will seek to bring a criminal network to justice.”
