The Staten Island man whose cell phone video captured the police chokehold death of Eric Garner was caught — also on video — selling drugs to undercover cops, a law enforcement source said Tuesday.
“He took the video,” a police source said of Ramsey Orta.
“Now we took the video.”
Orta, along with his mother and brother, was among seven charged with dealing drugs, including in and around Tompkinsville Park, near where Garner on July 17 was brought to the ground by a chokehold while he was being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes.
Since then Orta, 23, has had a series of legal battles, most notably his indictment a month later for gun possession, a charge he contended was payback for the Garner video.
Before dawn Tuesday, police busted Orta and his mother Emily Mercado, 42, at their home, and his brother Michael Batista, 25, at his home. The remaining suspects were arrested elsewhere and one is still being sought.
Orta is accused in nine different transactions — selling heroin, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs Oxycodone and Xanax to undercovers who came to his home or met him near the hotel where he was busted on the gun charge.
“It’s a frame-up,” he reportedly yelled out as he was lead into court.
His mother allegedly helped him sell Oxycodone and Xanax, while the other suspects are accused of selling or possessing narcotics or marijuana.
Mercado was released with no bail while her son was held on $100,000 bail.
In December, a grand jury voted not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who brought Garner to the ground with what the Medical Examiner ruled was a chokehold.
After court Tuesday, tensions were high, with one spectator, apparently a relative of Mercado, agreeing to delete a cell phone picture she had taken in court, a law enforcement source said.
Another spectator got a summons for disorderly conduct after scuffling with a court officer.
