MANHATTAN (CN) - An NYPD officer was arrested and charged with extortion and dealing cocaine, federal prosecutors said. Officer Juan Acosta conspired with his friend Yorick Rafael Corniel-Perez to deal kilos of cocaine around New York City, and used an NYPD car "to rob a drug courier of several hundred thousand dollars in cash derived from a drug deal with Corniel-Perez, making it appear as if the money had been seized by law enforcement," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
After Acosta "boasted of his status as a police officer" to a man be believed to be a member of a Colombian cartel, he took $15,000 to take when he believed to be 10 kilos of cocaine from Long Island to the Bronx, prosecutors said. But the cartel member was a cooperating witness and Acosta was arrested.
Acosta has been with the NYPD since 2000.
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