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Corrections Officer and Rikers Barber Planned Raid on Drug Dealer, Cops Say

By Carla Zanoni | May 30, 2012 6:49am | Updated on May 30, 2012 3:42pm
A corrections officer and city jail cook were nabbed after allegedly trying to rob drug dealers in a home on Park terrace West in Inwood on May 23, 2012.
A corrections officer and city jail cook were nabbed after allegedly trying to rob drug dealers in a home on Park terrace West in Inwood on May 23, 2012.
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E Benjamin Posnack

INWOOD — An upstate corrections officer and a Rikers Island barber were arrested after attempting to rob Inwood drug dealers at gunpoint, officials said.

Drug Enforcement Agency officers arrested Kirk Francis, 33, a correction oficer at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and Melbourne Rowe, 36, a barber on Rikers Island, as they allegedly attempted to rob an apartment on Park Terrace West at West 217th Street, on May 24. 

Agency officials had been monitoring the two men since the beginning of May, when Rowe told an informant he planned to take “several kilograms of cocaine and a large amount of money” from the apartment, according to court documents. 

Rowe and Francis allegedly met with informants several times over the course of the month at Santa Fe restaurant in Riverdale and on the street near the allegedly targeted home. 

The duo discussed their preparations for the robbery and detailed which weapons they planned to use and how they would divide the narcotics and money they took, the officials said. 

The two were arrested after they drove to the co-op apartment complex in a black Chevy Impala at approximately 10:30 p.m., according to court documents. 

Agents allegedly found a loaded .40 caliber gun and a pair of handcuffs on Francis and recovered plastic gloves and flex handcuffs in the car.  A 9mm Sig Sauer gun was recovered in the console next to Rowe’s seat. 

Both were charged with attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance and attempted first and second-degree robbery. Both were released on $300,000 bond or $200,000 cash. 

The two men are due back in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday.