A T&T-BORN New York City policeman is expected to be indicted following his arrest on federal charges that he helped an ethnic Albanian gang rob drug dealers.The officer, Darren Moonan, helped steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of pounds of marijuana from drug dealers, FBI authorities have alleged.The gang netted more than US$1 million in cash and narcotics by burglarising drug houses in the city, Nassau County and Pennsylvania, they said.Moonan, who was assigned to a Queens precinct, was ordered held without bail on federal charges of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and robbery. Six other men were also charged in the scheme.Moonan, 28, has been in a federal detention centre in Manhattan since his arrest July 8 on federal conspiracy charges.His arrest was not revealed until Tuesday, after an inquiry by a reporter from New York Newsday.In the complaint, an FBI agent stated Moonan acted as a lookout and chauffeur, providing “security” for a robbery crew.After some of the robberies, he “drove proceeds of the crime away from the scene” so that if stopped by police he could say “he was himself a police officer,” AP reported court papers as saying.Moonan was overheard on wiretaps speaking to other suspected members of the gang about possible drug deals, US press reports stated yesterday.Prosecutors said if convicted Moonan would face up to 60 years in prison, although the term could be much lower under sentencing guidelines.Moonan’s attorney Bradley D Simon described his client as a decorated six-year veteran who was involved in the rescue effort after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, AP stated.
