By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — A police officer allegedly planning to peddle the popular club drug ketamine, or "Special K," with a partner in Chinatown pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempting to buy the drug in bulk, the New York Post reported.
Kifah Othman, 40, allegedly planned to purchase $40,000 worth of ketamine per week from a retired cop who cooperated with law enforcement as part of the sting operation, the Post said.
The former cop, who now runs a tattoo parlor in Brooklyn, secretly recorded Othman saying he planned to work with his Chinatown partner to unload mass quantities of the drug, the paper said.
The informant, who set up Othman as a way to earn leniency from the feds in the New Jersey case, also recorded Othman saying he had already worked with his Chinatown connection and previously bought a "shipping container filled with ketamine" to sell on the streets, the Post reported.
Othman allegedly brought his scheme to the ex-cop despite knowing he had been busted in an unrelated New Jersey drug case in 2008, the paper said.
Othman, of Staten Island, is free on $250,000 bond and faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted, the Post added.
