Three District police officers were arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges of attempting to receive stolen property.

Continue reading

The officers were targeted in an internal affairs sting operation.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced that the officers, Guillermo Ortiz, Silvestre Bonilla and Dioni Fernandez, believed they were purchasing stolen electronics.

News of the arrests comes just a day after police announced that a 28-year-old officer, Jennifer Green, was arrested and charged with attempting to receive stolen property. The cases are not connected, Lanier said.

“This is devastating for all of us,” she said.

Ortiz, Bonilla and Fernandez weren’t working together, Lanier said.

Like Green, the three officers arrested Tuesday were targeted by internal affairs.

According to the Washington Post, undercover officers and confidential informants sold electronics 4th District officers in recent weeks and videotaped the transactions.

One officer bought a flat-screen television, iPad and iPhone, the post reported. The goods were worth about $5,000. Another bought iPads worth about $1,400. The third bought two flat-screen televisions and an iPad worth about $2,000, the post reported.

Lanier said the department has significantly increased its effort to weed out corrupt and dishonest officers.

She said every case Ortiz, Bonilla and Fernandez were involved in is now in jeopardy.

Lanier said she didn’t believe the arrests point to a management issue. She also said that there likely won’t be further arrests of District cops.

In the case of Green, authorities said she had gone to a residence with a confidential informant last weekend. The informant told Green that he was going to burglarize the residence, which allegedly had drugs and cash.

The informant went to the residence and then returned with more than $1,000 in cash and a zip lock bag full of soap pieces made to resemble crack cocaine.

He shared the money with Green, according to charging documents.