NYPD ‘Cop Of The Year’ Charged In Cocaine Bust
A former NYPD “Cop of the Year” was arrested in Florida on cocaine-related charges.
Officer Philip Leroy, 28, was picked for the law enforcement honor in 2012 from among more than 100 colleagues for his work in the NYPD anti-crime unit in the Queens-based 114th Precinct.
In the late Monday night incident that led to the arrest, LeRoy, who is the son of a retired NYPD detective, and two other men allegedly tried to buy 10 kilos of coke in Sunrise, Fla., which according to local cops is apparently a particularly very bad idea in that venue.
“Sunrise PD does this thing called forfeiture, which are like reverse drug-deal stings, where cops pose as dealers selling very cheap cocaine. They’re known for these kind of big busts. You got to be pretty stupid to do this deal in Sunrise,” a police source told the New York Post.
The Post added that the officer “allegedly drove from New York with the intent to buy drugs in the Sunshine State and had his off-duty weapon on him at the time.”
LeRoy faces the following charges: felony weapons possession, cocaine trafficking, and conspiracy to traffic cocaine. He is being held on a $250,000 bond by Broward County authorities, who have up to three weeks to present formal charges. The NYPD suspended the officer early Tuesday morning.
At the time LeRoy won the cop of the year designation, then NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said that “As a member of the anti-crime unit, P.O. Leroy has made more than two dozen arrests so far this year for things like robbery and gun possession.”
Officer LeRoy reportedly made nearly 200 arrests in the time period from January 2009, when he went on the job, to June 2012.
The two other men arrested in the same Sunrise undercover sting also face charges of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
One of many photos on a Facebook page purportedly depicts LeRoy standing next to a wall containing an NYPD shield with the label “the greatest detectives.”
In a completely unrelated story, Sunrise was also the location for a January caper in which two teens were busted, as it were, for allegedly pilfering about $15,000 worth of lingerie from a Victoria’s Secret retail outlet.
[image credit: Facebook]
