DETROIT - A Detective with the Highland Park Police Department and her co-conspirator pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute fentanyl-laced heroin, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced today.
Ison was joined in the announcement by Acting Special Agent in Charge Josh P. Hauxhurst, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division.
Tiffany Lipkovitch, 46, of Detroit, and Amber Bellamy, 38, of Detroit, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled substances. Lipkovich is a detective with the Highland Park Police Department, where she has been a police officer since 2011. According to the complaint, federal agents recorded numerous calls and meetings between Lipkovitch and a confidential source about a drug transaction. Lipkovich gave the source “samples" or “pictures" of the drugs that were available from her associate, Bellamy, explaining that one was “$80 a gram" and the others were $100 per gram. When Lipkovitch asked what they were diluting or “cuttin" the drugs with, the confidential source responded that people used “fentanyl." This did not surprise Lipkovitch, who explained that Bellamy was getting “a package of fentanyl... from overseas." Lipkovitch eventually introduced the confidential source to Bellamy, who sold the source 45 grams of a fentanyl / heroin mixture. The confidential source later met with Lipkovitch, who was on duty and in her police uniform, about the transaction, and gave her $300 for facilitating the drug deal.
“Drug trafficking and drug addiction have created a crisis in our communities, something our law enforcement partners know all too well," said U.S. Attorney Ison. “It is an affront to the good men and women in law enforcement and to the communities that they serve for a sworn law enforcement officer to betray her oath in this manner. “
"Instead of upholding her oath to protect and serve, this police officer endangered the community by conspiring to distribute a dangerous and deadly drug," said Josh P. Hauxhurst, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Detroit Division. "The FBI will work with the local and federal partners to protect the community from those who seek to harm it. The FBI appreciates the Highland Park Police Department for their cooperation in this investigation."
Lipkovitch and Bellamy both face a maximum of forty years in prison for the charge to which they pled guilty.
The case was investigated by the FBI Detroit Area Public Corruption Task Force, in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Cares.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
