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thedailywhat:

Corruption Scandal of the Day: A former NYPD narcotics detective has admitted in court that the practice of planting drugs on innocent civilians to meet quotas was a pretty common one.

Stephen Anderson, under a cooperation agreement, testified at the corruption trial of Brooklyn South narcotics Detective Jason Arbeeny that he had helped police officer Henry Tavarez meet his buy-and-bust numbers by fabricating cocaine possession charges against four men arrested in a Queens bar in 2008.

“Tavarez was worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case,” Anderson told the court. “I had decided to give him [Tavarez] the drugs to help him out so that he could say he had a buy.”

Justice Gustin Reichbach asked Anderson if he observed this practice — known as “flaking” — taking place “with some frequency,” to which he replied “yes, multiple times.”

“It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators,” Anderson said.

Questioned about any concern he had for his victims, Anderson responded that there was very little reflection going on at the time. “It’s almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they’re going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway.”

Anderson and Taverez’s scheme was exposed when security cameras caught them framing Jose Colon and his brother Maximo. New York paid the siblings $300,000 in a false arrest suit settlement.

[nydn.]