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Everyone needs a side hustle, but an NYPD officer’s side gig has landed her and her boyfriend behind bars as the two were busted Thursday (Oct. 19), for allegedly peddling fentanyl in New York City.
Gothamist is reporting that Officer Grace Rosa Baez and her boo, Cesar Martinez, were taken into custody on Thursday and charged on Friday in Manhattan Federal Court with one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and three counts of distributing narcotics. Authorities used a “confidential source” to catch Baez red-handed as she offered said source two kilograms of “top quality” fentanyl for $30,000 along with 400 grams of heroin at the same price. Baez was trying to make bank out on these streets.
After meeting the source at the couple’s “shared” Yonkers apartment and giving them a sample bag of the deadly drug, Baez met with the source again Oct. 19, and handed over a kilo of heroin and up to 640 grams of fentanyl. That was all authorities needed to make the bust.
Gothamist reports:
In a prepared statement, Williams alleged that Baez “flagrantly violated” her oath to “protect and serve the people of New York City … by pushing poison, including fentanyl and heroin, which are driving the nation’s deadly opioid crisis and have been responsible for thousands of tragic deaths in this city and around the nation.”
The charges resulted from an investigation carried out this month by law enforcement officials working with an unnamed “confidential source,” per SDNY.
According to the complaint, Baez and Martinez offered to sell the source kilogram quantities of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine on multiple occasions between Oct. 9 and Oct. 19.
With the evidence in hand and seriousness of the charges, Baez and her boo are facing 10 years to life in prison under federal drug statutes.
“These charges are extremely troubling because there is no place for corruption within the NYPD,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said in a prepared statement, according to Gothamist. “If found guilty of these allegations, this officer will have tarnished the shield that she wore, as well as her sacred oath to New Yorkers.”
After facing the judge Friday (Oct. 20), Baez was released on $100,000 bail and placed on home confinement complete with an ankle monitor.
