Corruption Inquiry Netted 4 New York City Police Officers

January 23, 2008

(Long Island, N.Y.) 4 Members of the Brooklyn South Narcotics Division Police Department were arrested and charged with Falsifying records from drug seizures and other criminal charges in relation to drug operations, officials said on Monday.

Of the four men charged, two where arrested in December, Officer Sean Johnston and Julio Alvarez were arrested when Sean Johnston was heard in a bugged room in the department bragging about getting 11 bags of cocaine off of a buy-bust operation they were involved with. In the said operation, the officers declared obtaining 17 Ziploc bags of cocaine rather than the 28 bags which was seized from a dealer on September 13th in Coney Island. After being on the record bragging, Investigators quickly made an inquiry and thereafter arrested the two detectives charging them with official misconduct, falsifying business records and filing false documents, according to court papers. Up until now, the investigation is still undergoing and the whereabouts of those 11 missing bags of cocaine are not yet clear.

After the arrests, officers of the internal affairs bureau were prompted to conduct further investigations within the department itself and as a result, two more Police officers were arrested last week on an unrelated incident which involved drug sting operations last year.

Working in the same department as the two officers arrested earlier, Sgt. Michael Arenella and Officer Jerry Bowens, who had been with the force since 1995 was found to have stashed two packs of cocaine from the original 40 Ziploc bags seized in another sting and took $40 off of the $250 cash taken in that same operation. Although it was later determined that they took the two bags of cocaine and the $40 to pay-off the confidential informant, they were still arrested and charged since it is against policy and the misinformation lead to the filing of a false report.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly moved quickly to shake-up Personnel of the entire Brooklyn Police Department. He transferred Deputy Chief James O’Neill, the commanding officer of the department’s narcotics operations, as well as Inspector James O’Connell, the commander of Brooklyn South Narcotics. The Division will now be headed by Chief Joseph Reznick.

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