DETROIT – Two women, including a Highland Park detective, pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl-laced heroin, officials said.
Federal agents said they recorded numerous calls and meetings between Tiffany Lipkovitch, 46, of Detroit, and a confidential source about a drug transaction. Lipkovich has been an officer and detective for the Highland Park Police Department since 2011.
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Lipkovich gave the source “samples” or “pictures” of the drugs that were available from her associate, Amber Bellamy, 38, of Detroit, according to authorities.
Officials said Lipkovich told the source that one was “$80 a gram” and the others were “$100 per gram.”
When Lipkovich asked the source what they were diluting, or “cuttin’,” the drugs with, the source said that people used “fentanyl.”
Authorities said Lipkovich wasn’t surprised by the response and explained that Bellamy was receiving “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, according to officials.
The source later met with Lipkovitch, who was on duty and wearing her Highland Park police uniform at the time, about the transaction, and paid her $300 for facilitating the drug deal, federal officials said.
“Drug trafficking and drug addiction have created a crisis in our communities, something our law enforcement partners know all too well,” U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said. “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. "
Lipkovich and Bellamy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
“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.
Both women face a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.