What to Know
- Michael J. Coppola, police chief of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Department, has been arrested on narcotics charges
- Authorities say he has been ordering cocaine online and having it delivered to a post office box
- He was busted when detectives placed a box of fake cocaine in his P.O. box and he went and picked it up
The police chief of the Palisades Parkway Police Department has been arrested, accused of ordering cocaine online.
Michael J. Coppola, 43, had been buying cocaine on the Internet and getting it delivered to a post office box, prosecutors say.
Detectives investigating the case, including postal investigators and Homeland Security, along with Bergen County prosecutors, put a package containing imitation cocaine in Coppola's post office box.
He went to get the package on Aug. 9, picking up what he believed to be cocaine, and then was pulled over and arrested during a traffic stop on Route 80 East in Ridgefield Park, authorities said.
Coppola is facing charges of attempt to possess cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Attorney information wasn't immediately clear. He's expected to appear in court in Hackensack on Aug. 22.
