Shocking moment NYPD cops turn off surveillance camera during raid on Queens smoke shop before falsely charging two brothers with possessing 40 pounds of ‘cocaine’
- Video footage from a New York smoke shop shows an NYPD unit disabling a hidden surveillance camera during a drug bust
- The store’s owners were jailed for a month until the case was dismissed
- They were accused of being in the possession of 40 pounds of cocaine, but drug test kits showed there was none of the illegal substance recovered
- The brothers returned to their store after being jailed and found video footage revealing cops when they disabled the camera
- The NYPD says that the camera was disabled for ‘tactical reasons’ and that an investigation of the entire incident is now underway
Video footage has revealed the moment when NYPD cops disabled a secret surveillance camera during a drug bust at a Queens smoke shop where they allegedly found 40 pounds of cocaine.
Two brothers who owned the shop were jailed for a month until the case was dismissed when drug tests came back negative for the alleged cocaine seized in the raid.
‘It was the worst day of my life,’ said one of the brothers.
Both men did not want to be named in a report of the incident on WNBC on Thursday.
‘We never had drugs in the store,’ the smoke shop owner told the news outlet. He and his brother are now suing the city.
Video footage shows NYPD cops just before they disabled a secret surveillance camera they stumbled on during the drug bust of a Queens smoke shop
Footage from hidden video surveillance shows when a police captain reached up and pulled out the camera’s cables to shut it off permanently during the raid
A spokesman for the NYPD told WNBC that the camera was disabled for ‘tactical reasons,’ and that an internal investigation into the incident was underway.
Both brothers, after a month spent in jail without bail after their arrest, returned to the store to discover cops had left the disabled camera.
The camera was concealed inside what looks like a smoke detector suspended from the store’s ceiling.
Footage on the camera was restored by a friend of the brothers, who also is a computer engineer. It shows the moment a police captain reached up and pulled out the camera’s cables to shut it off permanently.
An attorney for the store owners calls the cops who raided the store, ‘a unit gone wild.’
Brothers who own the store (pictured) spent a month in jail without bail after they were arrested for allegedly having 40 pounds of cocaine in the store. Drug tests later showed no illegal substance was recovered
An attorney for the store owners watched the footage and calls the cops who raided the store, ‘a unit gone wild.’ ‘They think they’re above the law. They’re ripping out cameras. What are they afraid of the public seeing?’ asked Marvyn Kornberg, the lawyer (pictured)
Richard Rivera, a former New Jersey cop who is now a tactics expert, said the NYPD’s explanation for pulling out the camera’s wires was ‘ridiculous’, especially when other video footage in the store was taken of the officers, and none appeared concerned to be on footage
‘They think they’re above the law. They’re ripping out cameras. What are they afraid of the public seeing?’ asked Marvyn Kornberg, the lawyer.
Richard Rivera, a former New Jersey cop who is now a tactics expert, said the NYPD’s explanation for pulling out the camera’s wires was ‘ridiculous’, especially when other video footage in the store was taken of the officers, and none appeared concerned to be on the footage.
‘They could have covered the cameras. The way they come in doesn’t indicate that any of them is concerned about a remote feed. They’re not worried about security. It’s like a walk in the park to them’, Rivera tells WNBC.
There was no legitimate law enforcement reasons for killing the camera concealed in the smoke detector, he said.
Prosecutors who dropped the case blamed the NYPD, saying district attorneys in the case had relied on information from the cops.
The brothers’ lawsuit demands that NYPD hand over their basis for executing the search warrant that led to the raid.
There was no legitimate law enforcement reasons for killing the camera concealed in the smoke detector (pictured), says an expert