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Off-Duty Officer Arrested for Selling Drugs in Corona, Police Say

By Katie Honan | May 26, 2017 1:45pm

QUEENS — An off-duty police officer and his girlfriend were arrested for selling cocaine to a man in Corona, according to the NYPD.

Officer Jose Sierra, who works in Public Service Area 7 patrolling Bronx housing projects, was busted Thursday for selling drugs on 111th Street, between 39th and 38th avenues, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, who conducted the investigation with the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and Homeland Security Investigations.

He sold the drugs to off-duty officers out of his 2017 Honda Accord while Lina Maria Bedoya Muriel, who is reportedly his girlfriend, sat in the passenger seat, officials said. 

The pair sold nearly two dozen packets of cocaine on 111th Street, on May 16 and May 23. They were arrested May 25 in front of 24-18 89th St. in East Elmhurst, where officers found 36 more packages of cocaine in the trunk, officials said.

Officers later conducted a search of the basement apartment of the home, finding 125 grams of cocaine, a pistol registered to Sierra, digital scales and passports, according to Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.

"Police officers are charged with enforcing the law. Those who break it not only violate our sworn oath, they betray the public's trust in us," NYPD Commissioner James P. O'Neill said in a statement.

Sierra and Muriel were held on $50,000 bail at their arraignment.

Sierra joined the NYPD in July 2011.