Ex-cop faces life in prison for using uniform to rob drug dealers

A disgraced former Harlem cop faces up to life in prison after he was found guilty in Brooklyn federal court Thursday ​of using his badge to help shake down drug dealers.
After a two-week trial, jurors found Jose Tejada guilty of taking part in a slew of stickups in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx ​ — sometimes while on duty and in uniform.
“Tejada dishonored his badge and his uniform when he crossed the line from cop to robber,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch in a statement following the verdict. “Tejada and his crew targeted drug dealers, not to bring them to justice, but to steal their narcotics for their own profits. In the process, innocent citizens were terrorized and threatened.”
Working alongside a crew of neighborhood hoodlums, Tejada cleared thousands of dollars worth of cash and drugs, prosecutors said during the two-week trial.
In one botched Bronx stickup, Tejada and his cronies thought they were robbing the home of a drug crew when they actually barged in on an innocent family, prosecutors said.