Authorities arrested a D.C. police officer accused in a Pennsylvania money laundering case at the department's 4th District station in Northwest Tuesday.
Officer Jared Weinberg conspired with a cocaine dealer to hide drug money, according to a criminal complaint filed in Pittsburgh.
“Any act that tarnishes our uniform and our reputation, we can’t tolerate it,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.
Police arrested Weinberg, 28, in front of his colleagues at roll call. He appeared in court wearing his police uniform pants and a windbreaker over his uniform shirt.
“We’ve been very proactive about our integrity policies and we don’t have any problem taking an officer who was involved in any kind of misconduct, taking him right out of roll call,” Lanier said.
The alleged $2 million money laundering scheme he’s accused in occurred before he joined the Metropolitan Police Department in February 2012. At one time he allegedly lived with the suspected cocaine dealer for whom he allegedly rented apartments in Maryland.
“We had been working with a federal law enforcement agency that had been working on this case for some time -- I believe it actually began before he started as a MPD officer -- so we worked with them throughout the investigation,” Lanier said. “When it got to the point where he could be charged, we assisted in taking him into custody.”
