(30 Jul 2014) Six Philadelphia narcotics officers have been indicted on charges they spent years shaking down drug dealers, using gangland tactics to rob them of cash and drugs, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Authorities said officers in one case held a person over an 18th floor balcony railing.
In other cases, they said, one suspect was struck in the back of the head with a steel rod and another was held captive in a hotel room for several days while he and his family were threatened.
The shakedowns occurred from 2006 to 2012, prosecutors said.
The defendants named in the 26-count indictment are current or former Officers Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman and John Speiser.
They were expected to appear in court for an initial appearance Thursday afternoon. It was not immediately clear if any had lawyers.
Former Officer Jeffrey Walker pleaded guilty in February to stealing $15,000 from a drug dealer in a plot that also involved planting drugs in his car, and was cooperating in a wider probe of the drug trafficking unit.
Dozens of drug convictions have been overturned in the wake of the scandal.
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