By Dan Herbeck
Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Niagara Falls police officer was arrested Tuesday night on accusations that he trafficked in cocaine -- sometimes while wearing his police uniform -- and forced two women to have sex with him.
Officers from his own department, working with federal agents, arrested Officer Ryan G. Warme, 27, on multiple felony charges, U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn said.
“These are very disturbing charges, involving the misuse of an officer’s police powers,” he said. “It started with an internal investigation by the Niagara Falls police, with federal agents joining the investigation. These are federal charges.”
Warme is accused of trafficking in cocaine, sometimes while on duty and in uniform. He is also accused of wielding a weapon -- his police sidearm -- during the commission of drug crimes and is charged with forcing two women to have sex with him.
Investigators learned that at one point, Warme was purchasing cocaine from drug dealers in Niagara Falls “two to five times a week,” Flynn said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce accused Warme of holding his hand on his police firearm while forcing one of the women to commit sodomy on him. Authorities said Warme forced the woman to commit the sex act after he was called to her apartment last year to investigate an allegation that a former boyfriend abused her.
The woman who made the allegation knew Warme and had a previous relationship with him, authorities alleged.
A second woman alleged that Warme raped her last year.
According to Flynn, federal agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration worked with Niagara Falls police for months on the investigation.
The prosecutor said Warme, who lives on Ninth Street in Niagara Falls, was arrested in that city Tuesday night. He was expected to appear today in federal court in Buffalo after spending the night in jail.
Flynn commended Niagara Falls Police Superintendent John R. Chella for opening the investigation and seeking the assistance of federal agents and prosecutors. “It is never easy for any police chief to pursue charges against one of his own officers,” he said.
Copyright 2008 Buffalo News