DA: NYPD cop from LI stole guns for drugs
Nicholas Mina, 31, an NYPD cop from Long Island, was charged with stealing guns from his precinct house. Prosecutors told a judge he confessed that he was using them to pay off a debt to his drug dealer for oxycodone painkillers. (July 13, 2012) Credit: Jefferson Siegel
An NYPD cop from Long Island was charged Friday with stealing guns from his precinct house and allegedly confessed he was using them to pay off a debt to his drug dealer for oxycodone painkillers.
Nicholas Mina, 31, was accused of stealing four 9-mm semiautomatic weapons and a bulletproof vest over two months from the lockers of fellow officers at the Ninth Precinct in Manhattan's East Village, and passing them to Ivan Chavez, 24, charged with running a guns-and-drugs ring, authorities said.
Mina, an NYPD patrolman for 4 1/2 years, told investigators that he bought drugs "almost on a daily basis" from Chavez, prosecutors said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
"We have a confession last night . . . blaming it on his drug use and his debts to his drug dealer, Ivan Chavez," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Chris Prevost said.
Mina appeared slump-shouldered and downcast in court. He did not enter a plea and was held without bail on drug, gun and theft charges.
His court-appointed lawyer described him as a cop with a clean record until the current charges, and who splits his time between a girlfriend's house in Queens and his parents' house on Long Island. Voter records show an individual with Mina's name and birth date is registered in West Babylon.
Prosecutors said Chavez sold the guns stolen by Mina to undercover officers, after defacing their serial numbers. Records also put Mina alone in the precinct locker room when guns were lifted. The NYPD said Mina has been suspended without pay.
