Cocaine-Dealing Cop Helped Smuggle Drugs Through Uptown NYC: DA

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — A police officer assigned to an Uptown Manhattan precinct is facing charges for helping a man he arrested complete a drug deal, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said.

Johnny Diaz, 48, is accused of helping transport a kilogram of cocaine from the Bronx to West 125th Street and Broadway in Harlem for $4,000, prosecutors said. Diaz was indicted Monday on charges of first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, prosecutors said.

The alleged crooked cop got wrapped into the drug deal by a man he arrested in May, prosecutors said. Diaz believed the man was a drug dealer, but was actually an undercover cop who was investigating a tip that Diaz had been taking bribes from arrestees, prosecutors said.

Diaz seized one-half kilogram of cocaine and $18,000 cash from the undercover officer, but only logged $17,000 in cash as evidence, prosecutors said. Diaz then accepted a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label from the undercover cop to have his cellphone removed from evidence and agreed to pay Diaz $20,000 to get his charges dropped, prosecutors said.

On June 15, Diaz helped the undercover officer transport cocaine by acting as his escort. Diaz drove behind the cop's vehicle and told him to drive slowly, to avoid talking on the phone and to tell any officer that stopped him to talk to Diaz, prosecutors said.

After the drug deal was successful, Diaz was recorded telling the undercover cop: "I can do life for this... I should know better. I'm a cop."

"Law enforcement does its best work when we have the confidence and collaboration of the communities we serve,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., said in a statement. "As alleged in this case, this Officer was willing to traffic dangerous narcotics in the city he is sworn to protect for a few thousand dollars, and to steal evidence from his own precinct for a bottle of scotch. These alleged acts threaten the credibility of the entire law enforcement community, and with it, the safety of our great city."

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