Cop busted as a coke & pot courier
AN NYPD officer was so confident in her ability to freely transport marijuana and cocaine in the city, prosecutors say she told an undercover cop that she could simply flash her badge and avoid getting arrested.
But it’s a little harder to keep from getting pinched if a cop is sitting next to you.
Nysia Stroud — on the force for six years — was in a car and off-duty on four occasions from April 26 to June 1. Inside the car was an undercover cop posing as a drug courier. Stroud, 29, got between $250 and $1,000 each time she brought drugs from Washington Heights to W. 96th St.
Soon the jig was up when her moonlighting was exposed during a sting operation.
The Fleet Services cop was busted and charged with four counts of official misconduct. Stroud (photo) was also hit with two counts of possession of a controlled substance — for each time she actually saw the drugs, authorities said.
She had been on modified duty before she was suspended Tuesday.
Stroud appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday and awkwardly bent her body forward. At one point, Stroud put her head on the defense table to keep photographers from getting clear shots of her face.
Stroud, who made about $56,000 last year, pleaded not guilty to transporting more than a kilo of cocaine.
“Brazen criminal conduct by a member of law enforcement constitutes a grievous breach of duty and public trust,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.
An Internal Affairs Bureau probe began after department officials suspected her of running an illicit side game. Allegations of her conduct first surfaced in 2015, sourcs said.
Stroud, who lives in Brooklyn, faces a minimum of eight years behind bars on the top charges. Stroud has been suspended from the NYPD. Bail was set at $500,000.
Her lawyer Alex Grosshtern said there may be more to the story.
“She’s a six-year veteran of the NYPD who has possibly been entrapped because it defies common sense that she would be engaged in criminality of such magnitude during the time when she’s being watched under a microscope, under such scrutiny, on modified leave,” Grosshtern said.