New York City Police Officer Nicholas Mina accused of selling police weapons to criminals

Update

Authorities said Officer Nicholas Mina stole police guns and sold to criminals to support his drug habit.

The four-and-a-half year veteran confessed to investigators last night that he hooked on prescription pills and deep in debt to his drug dealer that he stole the guns in five separate thefts.

During his arraignment today assistant district attorney Chris Prevost told the judge “over two months, in five separate thefts, [Mina] stole four separate loaded 9mm semiautomatic weapons and a ballistic vest from fellow officers in the Ninth Precinct.”

Prevost went on to say that the officer identified the drug dealer he sold the weapons to as Ivan Chavez.

Chavez was charged with buying, defacing and selling the guns that Mina supplied him.

Original story

The New York Post is reporting shocking claims that a 6-year police veteran stole guns from his colleagues’ lockers in a Manhattan station house and then sold them to criminals.

The newspaper said Officer Nicolas Mina, an officer at the Ninth Precinct in the East Village, stole four 9mm guns from the seventh-floor locker room and sold them to criminals, who did not know he was a police officer.

A source told the newspaper that 31-year-old Mina, was assigned to guard the lockers as part of a 24-hour security detail that was created by higher-ups, when he took the first gun on April 22.

It is also said that Mina also stole bulletproof vests, cash and an iPad from the locker room.

The Post said three civilians, Ivan Chavez, 24; Meryl Lebowitz, 64; and Jennifer Sultan, 38, were also arrested with Mina on Thursday.

The roles of the civilians in the crime were not immediately known.