By Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - A Bronx police officer was arrested in a sting operation that duped him into believing he was ripping off Colombian drug dealers, officials said Friday.
Porfirio Meijia, 28, was snared Thursday evening in an investigation that began when an informant gave authorities information about several robberies of drug stash houses in the Bronx, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The informant told police and Drug Enforcement Agency investigators that at least one of the robbers was a police officer or had been imitating a cop during the robberies, Browne said.
Investigators instructed the informant to tell the robbers that he knew of Colombian drug dealers who could be robbed of $450,000 and a load of heroin as they left a Bronx parking lot for Connecticut.
Meijia was arrested along with five other men as they pulled into the parking lot at 243rd Street and Broadway at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, police said. He was not on duty but had his police gunbelt, 9mm pistol, bullet-resistant vest, badge and radio, officials said.
Meijia and the other suspects face charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to distribute narcotics and using a firearm in a violent crime, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.
Meijia resigned his position with the Housing Bureau’s special operations division, which focuses on quality-of-life problems in city housing projects, said Officer Christopher Filippazzo, a police spokesman.
He waived his right to remain silent and told a DEA agent that he was a police officer and had intended to rob the Colombian dealers of their cash and 10 kilos of heroin.
Meijia had been an officer since 2000, police said.
The suspects were awaiting arraignment late Friday afternoon. Dion Washington, a spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, said he did not know the name of the officer’s attorney.
Browne said the case is not connected to an investigation that has implicated at least nine officers to thefts of cocaine and drug money linked to their work on a northern Manhattan anti-narcotics initiative.