Correction officers nabbed in drug sting www.privateofficer.com

Correction officers nabbed in drug sting http://www.privateofficer.com

New York City NC April 28 2008

Kyle T. Greene

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers

www.privateofficer.com
Seven current or former New York City correction officers were arrested on Thursday on charges of taking bribes and trying to smuggle illegal drugs to prisoners at Rikers Island, the authorities said.
The roundup was the city’s third crackdown in five years. Seven workers at city jails were arrested in 2003, and six were arrested in 2006.
Tips from other jail employees and from inmates led the authorities to focus on the latest suspects, the Department of Investigation said in a statement.
Undercover agents posing as friends or relatives of inmates paid bribes of $100 to $1,500 to six correction officers and gave them marijuana and fake cocaine or fake heroin to deliver. The seventh officer who was charged was assigned to screen mail for contraband. No inmates actually obtained drugs in the investigation, officials said.
Rose Gill Hearn, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said that the officers “are charged with violating their duty and jeopardizing the safety and security of the city’s jails.”
Martin F. Horn, the city’s correction commissioner, said, “If true, these charges are an insult to their brother and sister officers and a blemish on the well-earned reputation of the vast majority of our officers.”
The correction agency has imposed several measures to prevent illegal drugs from entering the jails, including random monthly testing of 5,000 of the system’s 14,000 inmates, the use of drug-sniffing dogs, and a device to detect trace amounts of drugs on visitors.
Three of the suspects had been fired for unrelated reasons, correction officials said. They were Daniel Marin, 27, of the Bronx; Anthony Narcisse, 24, of Manhattan; and Andrew Plaskett, 28, of Jamaica, Queens.
The other four suspects were suspended from their jobs upon their arrests. They were Daniel Bethel, 43, of Brooklyn; Joseph Constantino, 50, of Mineola, N.Y., the mailroom screener; William Delgado, 27, of the Bronx; and Tamar Peebles, 20, of Brooklyn.

Email us/adminassist@privateofficer.com

Join us/myspace.com/privateofficernews

Be part of our social community! http://www.privateofficer.com