NYC Department of Investigation raids Queens Sheriff’s office amid probe

The metropolis Department of Investigation raided the Queens County Sheriff’s Office connected Thursday amid a probe into whether deputies improperly seized currency from unlicensed cookware shops, sources said.

A root acquainted with the substance told the Daily News that DOI agents searched the Sheriff’s Office office connected Starr Ave. adjacent Borden Ave. successful Long Island City arsenic portion of an ongoing probe into the agency.

Sheriff Anthony Miranda told members of the City Council astatine a Sept. 17 proceeding that his bureau does not grip currency retrieved during raids of amerciable cookware shops, maintaining it is the NYPD’s work to voucher each seized funds.

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New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda. (Angus Mordant for New York Daily News)

“Since ‘[Operation] Padlock to Protect,’ the vouchering process has been designated with the NYPD,” Miranda said erstwhile asked by City Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) astir however overmuch gross the sheriff’s bureau is expected to make from illicit marijuana store raids this year.

“They are the ones who voucher the spot depending connected the circumstances of the location,” Miranda said astatine the hearing. “They volition either voucher it arsenic safekeeping oregon voucher it arsenic investigatory grounds depending connected the antithetic circumstances.”

But national officials refuted Miranda’s claims, saying lawman sheriffs are routinely asked to voucher currency and cannabis products.

One root told The News they informed DOI that they witnessed currency being removed from shops by deputies.

It has not been alleged the sheriff’s bureau was skimming funds from the seized cash.

Tensions betwixt Miranda and the national person been moving high, with the national calling connected Miranda to resign for creating a “hostile enactment environment” that’s led to an exodus of rank-and-file members.

It was not instantly wide what has happened to currency seized during the “Padlock to Protect” operations run by a metropolis task unit that includes some the sheriff’s bureau and the NYPD.

Miranda told Brannan during past week’s proceeding helium would travel up with the NYPD and proviso further accusation to the City Council.

Complaints implicit the contented person been filed with the DOI, which has begun an enquiry and interviewed witnesses, sources said. The sources besides noted the currency seizures were among assorted issues being looked astatine by DOI, but specifics of different lines of enquiry weren’t instantly clear.

DOI spokeswoman Diane Struzzi declined to comment.