Public drinking leads cops to loaded gun, 31 cocaine bags in Murray Hill

A suspects’s few swigs of a beer on Second Avenue led cops to a loaded handgun and a stash of drugs early Saturday.

Officers with the 17th Precinct on patrol noticed Mark Nickay, 51, drinking a bottle of Corona while he was standing near a parked minivan with a friend identified as 32-year-old Leonard Ndue.

Both officers Christopher Neil and Michael Papparlardo stepped out of their marked patrol car and approached Nickay and Ndue. That’s when they said Nickey threw a bag underneath the van and began to walk towards Second Avenue, leaving his friend behind.

Neil and Papparlardo said they split up, with Neil approaching Nickay, a resident of Florida. Neil reportedly stopped the suspect from into his pants pocket, where the officer found a loaded.22-caliberDerringer.

Ndue began to argue with the officers about his friend’s arrest, leading the officers to arrest him.

Once both men were in custody, Neil went to retrieve the bag Nickay allegedly threw under the van. Inside, he found 21 bags of cocaine, 10 bags of crack cocaine and various other prescription pills.

Nickay faces weapons and drug possession charges, as well as for public drinking.

Ndue was arrested on obstruction and resisting charges.