NEW YORK - A New York City police officer was indicted for allegedly stealing police-issued firearms from his colleagues’ lockers in the 9th Precinct Station House and selling them on the underground market. Nicholas Mina, 31, is charged with conspiracy, criminal sale and possession of a firearm, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, and criminal sale of a controlled substance. The indictment also charges five other defendants for conspiring with mina. Ivan chavez, 24, Marcos Echeverria, 22, Meryl Lebowitz, 64, Jennifer Sultan, 38, and a fifth unapprehended defendant are each charged with Conspiracy and related crimes.

According to documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court, Mina has served as a member of the New York City Police Department for more than three years. He is accused of stealing and selling on the underground market police-issued firearms over the past six months. Each sale was monitored by undercover members of the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit. The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau also played a key role in this case, working with the District Attorney’s Office to investigate missing firearms and other equipment from the 9th Precinct Station House.

This case marks the 13th indictment of gun traffickers in the last 18 months by the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit and its NYPD partners, which have seized nearly $2 million of criminal proceeds and taken 422 guns off the street. An additional 139 guns were turned in on a single day last fall at a “Cash for Guns” buyback event sponsored by the Manhattan District Attorney and the NYPD, and numerous weapons are removed from circulation each year in routine criminal prosecutions.

“Guns, drugs, and corruption are a dangerous combination,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.,. “This defendant endangered the very public he took an oath to protect, at a time when gun violence is destroying lives every day. Thanks to the work of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, its Firearms Investigation Unit, and my Office’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit, we have taken these stolen guns off the street and will seek to bring a criminal network to justice.”