Gun smuggling sting nabs 5 NYPD cops :: 10/26/2011

NEW YORK - A sting operation resulted in the arrests of 12 people, including five New York Police Department officers, on charges that they smuggled $1 million worth of firearms, cigarettes and slot machines they thought were stolen, authorities said Tuesday.

Three retired NYPD officers and a New Jersey correction officer are among the other defendants named in a federal criminal complaint alleging an undercover agent paid them more than $100,000 to moonlight as gun runners while under FBI surveillance the entire time. Three current officers also participated in a brazen theft of cigarettes they were told were worth $500,000, the complaint says.

The men were eager and willing to smuggle the weapons and commit other crimes "so long as the price was right," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference announcing the arrests.

Arresting fellow law enforcers in a corruption case "is a heartbreaking thing," Bharara added. "But it is our duty to enforce the law and to uphold the rule of law - and to do so perhaps most unflinchingly when we come across people who have chosen to breach that sacred duty, because an officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer as well as every member of the public."