- He put on a
uniform, a badge and even carried a gun, but now 34-year-old Bledar Naco is
behind bars, charged with a federal offense of distributing cocaine.
Naco had been a Winthrop auxiliary police officer for more
than a year when Police Chief Terence Delehanty says he got a disturbing phone
call.
"I received a phone call from the Lynn Police Chief he
said he had information from his sources in his department that we had an
auxiliary police officer dealing cocaine from the cruiser, the auxiliary police
cruiser, and in uniform," Chief Delehanty says.
Chief Delehanty says he notified the FBI, and together with
Revere Police they set up a five month undercover surveillance and sting
operation to catch Naco in the act.
"We wanted to have a solid case to prosecute and wanted
to make sure we knew what case we were presenting and the facts and the
information we received were actually true," he said.
Court paperwork shows Naco was arrested last Thursday night
in the parking lot of Nick’s Place, a Winthrop family restaurant where he also
worked.
The documents allege he had just sold $100 worth of cocaine
to an undercover officer from his Mercedes parked in the lot.
"Nothing came up in the background checks, certainly we
did our due diligence in doing those checks and it’s just unfortunate,"
said Chief Delehanty, "but in any organization you have a certain
percentage that will take advantage of their position of power."
Chief Delehanty says it’s important to note that Naco was
not a full-fledged officer; he was a volunteer, assisting the department with
traffic posts and monitoring buildings in the town.
"It’s extremely frustrating and of course the public
sees a person in uniform doing something bad, they don’t know the distinction
between auxiliary and regular police officers," said Chief Delehanty,
"and so if affects all of our reputations, it tarnishes our badges."
Court documents
allege that Naco admitted to agents after his arrest that he had been selling
cocaine for about a year. Naco is being held in federal custody pending a
detention hearing later this week.
