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THORNWOOD, N.Y. Former Westchester County Police Officer Michael Brady was sentenced to just over four years in prison Thursday for his involvement in a drug smuggling ring at the Westchester County Airport.
This defendant, while a sworn law enforcement officer, took cash from an individual he barely knew in exchange for aiding his passage through airport security, U.S. Attorney David Fein said in a statement.
Brady, a Thornwood resident, accepted around $20,000 to allow drug traffickers to pass mass quantities of the painkiller Oxycodone through the airport while Brady was stationed there as a county police officer from December 2010 to April 2011, according to sworn court statements.
Members of the Drug Enforcement Agency say the drugs were smuggled through the airport from Florida and distributed throughout Connecticut. Brady pleaded guilty to charges of extortion under the color of right and receipt of a bribe by a public official, both federal offenses.
In addition to 37 months in prison, Brady was sentenced to three years of supervision upon his release and ordered to forfeit the $20,000 he accepted in the bribes. The sentence was handed down in federal court in New Haven.
Brady was arrested last September and resigned from the Westchester County Department of Public Safety after being indicted in November. Twenty other individuals were arrested on charges related to the drug smuggling ring.
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