Pubdate: Fri, 19 May 2006
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2006 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Anthony M. Destefano, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

EX-COP'S DRUG HEIST FOILED

Note: Staff writer Rocco Parascandola contributed to this story.

A former city police officer was indicted yesterday on charges that 
she was part of a plot to rob cocaine stash houses in Washington 
Heights while she was studying for promotion to the rank of sergeant, 
officials said.

Kirsix De La Cruz, 32, was first arrested April 26, the day she 
resigned from the Police Department, according to officials and court 
records. At that time De La Cruz was charged in an unpublicized 
federal criminal complaint along with two other suspects for being 
part of the drug rip-off conspiracy.

Yesterday, the original complaint and the new indictment were 
unsealed in Manhattan federal court. The documents say De La Cruz and 
two other suspects, Luis German and Markus Vizaniaris, were suspected 
of planning the robbery of a cocaine cache in Washington Heights in July 2005.

According to the complaint, investigators were tipped off to De La 
Cruz's involvement by a confidential witness who claimed the female 
officer was his niece. The witness had lent De La Cruz several 
thousand dollars so she could go to class to prepare for the Police 
Department sergeant's exam, court papers stated. The witness then 
asked De La Cruz whether she knew any cops who could help him with 
his business of robbing drug dealers and she said she would let him 
know, according to investigators.

In July 2005 De La Cruz introduced the confidential witness to 
German, the complaint stated. It was De La Cruz who then suggested 
that the proceeds of any drugs stolen by the witness could be shared 
with her and German, court papers stated.

German then tipped off the witness to a Washington Heights apartment 
where several pounds of cocaine were located, the complaint stated. 
The witness and Vizaniaris then stole 15 pounds from there, according 
to the complaint, adding that De La Cruz told the witness she wanted 
to be paid in cash. Officials said the stolen cocaine was worth more 
than $100,000.

The witness was arrested later in Manhattan with a backpack 
containing 13 pounds of cocaine - two pounds had been given to 
Vizaniaris - and started to cooperate with investigators in January, 
the complaint stated. With the help of law enforcement, the witness 
made a number of tape-recorded calls to De La Cruz in which she 
agreed to find out information about why Vizaniaris and German had 
been arrested in unrelated cases, officials said.

De La Cruz, who has been free on an unsecured $50,000 personal 
recognizance bond since her April arrest, joined the Police 
Department in 1995. She had worked in the 33rd Precinct in Washington 
Heights until 2005, when she was transferred to the Police 
Department's management information system department, which deals 
with computer systems, officials said. Her attorney, David Stern, 
declined to comment.

Vizaniaris, 36, and German, whose age wasn't given, are being held 
without bail on the federal case, court records show. Their attorneys 
didn't return calls seeking comment.
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