( 4UMF NEWS ) Cop Sold Guns For Drug Habit:
A city cop was so hooked on prescription pills and deep in debt to his drug dealer that he stole at least four loaded guns and a bulletproof vest from colleagues — and then sold them to feed his habit, prosecutors said.
Nicholas Mina, 31, stole the police-issued items from lockers at the 9th Precinct stationhouse in the East Village, officials said. He often worked the night shift unsupervised.
“He’s a f—— scumbag,” a detective said near the precinct. “He’s going away for a long time.”
On the force about four and a half years, Mina was busted Thursday night. He quickly confessed to putting his fellow cops’ lives on the line by selling guns to a known drug dealer, assistant district attorney Chris Prevost told a judge at the arraignment on Friday.
“Over two months in five separate thefts he stole four separate loaded 9-mm. semiautomatic weapons and a ballistic vest from fellow officers in the 9th Precinct,” Prevost said. “We have a confession (Thursday) night to the theft and the sale of the guns, laying it on his drug use and his debt to his drug dealer, Ivan Chavez.”
Chavez was charged with buying, defacing and selling the guns that Mina supplied him. He’s also expected to be charged in the coming months with being part of a major prescription drug ring, officials said.
Three others were arrested as part of a two-month investigation by the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
