Charge 7 COs Took Bribes to Smuggle Drugs in to Inmates

By MIA GOLDBERG

Seven Correction Officers were arrested and charged April 24 with accepting bribes and smuggling drugs to prisoners on Rikers Island.

MARTIN F. HORN: 'An insult to fellow officers.'

The arrests resulted from a series of undercover operations conducted by the Department of Investigation between February 2007 and last week. The officers were targeted based on tips from other Department of Correction employees and inmates.

Took Cash to Deliver Drugs

Six of the officers are alleged to have accepted cash payments of between $100 and $1,500 from agents posing as friends and relatives of inmates, in exchange for delivering marijuana and fake cocaine and heroin.

The seventh officer, assigned to screen incoming mail for contraband, allegedly accepted money to allow the contraband into the prison.

"These arrests ... demonstrate that correction officers who choose to sacrifice integrity and abuse the authority placed in them will face severe consequences," said DOI commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

Two defendants, Daniel Martin and Tamar Peebles, face maximum jail time of 10 years if convicted. The remaining five: Daniel Bethel, Joseph Constantino, Andre Plaskett, Anthony Narcisse and William Delgado, face up to seven years in jail, according to the Bronx District Attorney's Office.

DOC Commissioner Martin Horn said, "If true, these charges are an insult to their brother and sister officers and a blemish on the well-earned reputation of the vast majority of our officers ... I am gratified that in several cases, our own staff turned these officers in. Any officer who smuggles contraband into our facilities deserves the disdain of his fellow officers and the maximum penalty allowed by law."

According to DOI, Mr. Marin, Mr. Narcisse and Mr. Plaskett had already been dismissed by the DOC for other reasons. The remaining four were suspended without pay.