NYC DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION OFFICER INDICTED FOR TAKING BRIBES TO SMUGGLE CONTRABAND

 

Defendant Allegedly Brought Documents Purportedly Laced with Narcotics to Inmate in Rikers Island

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata announced that a NYC Department of Correction Officer has been indicted for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for delivering documents that he believed were soaked with narcotics to an inmate. 

District Attorney Clark said, “Documents soaked in dangerous narcotics such as K2 and fentanyl threaten the safety of inmates and staff. This defendant allegedly received money to bring in papers treated with drugs, ignoring the hazard of such contraband, and putting lives at risk.” 

Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, “Correction Officers take an oath to uphold the law and have a responsibility to safeguard people in their care. Instead, as charged, this defendant betrayed that oath by allegedly accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle contraband, specifically papers purported to be soaked in narcotics, into Rikers Island facilities, endangering both persons in custody and his fellow officers. I thank the Bronx District Attorney's Office for its continued partnership and commitment to ensuring safety in the City's jails." 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Eric Rivera, 54, was arraigned on May 20, 2026, on second-degree Bribe Receiving, third-degree Bribe Receiving, Official Misconduct and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Jay Young Kim. He is due back in court on July 22, 2026.

According to the investigation, on two occasions between June 1, 2025, and September 15, 2025, Rivera accepted bribes in excess of $5,000 in exchange for bringing documents purported to be soaked in narcotics onto Rikers Island which he subsequently gave to an inmate.

District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detectives Sandy Nunez, Daniel Angen, and Jennifer Cordero from the Bronx District Attorney’s Squad, under the supervision of Sergeant Louis Meade, for their work in the investigation.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.