A police officer of over a decade has been busted for illicit crimes after being caught dealing whilst on duty.
The officer, who formerly worked for the NYPD and had previously boasted about her love for her job, was caught out meddling with an informant in a drugs negotiation.
Grace Rose Baez, who first joined the force in 2012, was allegedly dealing large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other substances on duty, officials have revealed.
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The US Attorney of the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, confirmed that Baez, 37, was arrested alongside Cesar Martinez, 42, for attempting to sell narcotics for a federal informant between October 9 and October 29 of this year and charged with the conspiracy to distribute narcotics and distribution of narcotics.
Baez is said to have given the informant a sample of ‘top quality’ fentanyl in a Mentos container on October 17, according to officials.
It is then alleged that she spoke to the informant regarding her selling a kilo of 'top quality' heroin for approximately $25,000, as well as 800 grams of fentanyl to be negotiated at a later date after the purity of the drug had been known.
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Originally a desk worker at an NYPD facility, the disgraced officer has been found by federal officials to have been arranging meetings and holding price negotiations to sell ‘kilogram quantities of narcotics’ whilst at work.
A meeting was held on 19 October, where Baez met the criminal informant in Yonkers, NYC to hand over packages of suspected narcotics, including 400 grams of heroin, 640 grams of fentanyl labelled 640 Manzana and an additional kilogram of heroin.
It was on this day that the former officer was arrested for her crimes, and Martinez was later taken into custody after being apprehended at the home that the pair both shared together.
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According to officials, it was during this arrest at the residence where officers a package of suspected narcotics being thrown out of the apartment, as well as a kilogram press machine and more narcotics that Martinez had allegedly attempted to throw outside.
Before the drug scandal went down, Baez had been put on modified duty in 2020 after she was accused of misconduct.
She has now been suspended without pay after her arrest, with her facing the possibility of years behind bars for her drug negotiations.
She had previously boasted about loving her job in 2020 on an Instagram post, which was captioned with praise for her career choice that would come back to bite her just a couple years later.
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"I will never apologize for picking a career I love to do," she wrote. "There’s always a bad one or two in the bunch, but that’s not me…"
UNILAD reached out to the NYPD for comment.
Britt Jones