An accused rogue Philadelphia police officer, who was charged in June on federal drug and gun counts, was indicted today on additional charges of a Hobbs Act robbery and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.
Jonathan Garcia, 23, was on-duty as a patrolman when he allegedly tried to rob a suspected drug dealer of $2,030 and prescription pain medications. The suspected drug dealer turned out to be an informant for the FBI.
Garcia, said federal prosecutors, used his patrol car and all his police trappings on June 19 to illegally stop and arrest the suspected drug dealer and searched the man's car. Garcia confiscated $2,500 and 100 oxycontin pills, but when he returned to his 17th district headquarters, Garcia submitted paper work showing he seized only $420 and 90 pills.
FBI agents arrested him later that evening at his home in Kensington where they found the balance of the cash and pills, according to court papers.
Garcia was previously charged in selling heroin to a confidential informant on multiple occasions.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has suspended Garcia for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.
Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 215-854-2796 or [email protected].
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