Miami DEA agents charged in bribery conspiracy

By Joshua Goodman and Jim Mustian | Related Press

A present U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a former supervisor within the company had been charged Friday with leaking confidential legislation enforcement data to protection attorneys in Florida in trade for money and presents.

A five-count bribery-conspiracy indictment unsealed in New York costs the agent, John Costanzo Jr., with accepting bribes to offer delicate details about pending investigations to Manny Recio, a former Miami supervisor who retired from DEA greater than two years in the past to work as a personal investigator for native protection attorneys. Federal prosecutors allege Recio sought the knowledge to assist recruit new purchasers.

“The conduct alleged within the indictment violates the core responsibility of legislation enforcement officers to guard and serve the general public, slightly than to make use of their entry to delicate data to counterpoint themselves,” Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams stated in a press release.

The DEA and an lawyer for Recio didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Costanzo’s lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey, stated in an e mail that “the speculation of this case is misguided and he will likely be vindicated.”

In interviews with FBI brokers in 2019, Costanzo and Recio each denied ever exchanging something of worth as a part of the alleged scheme. Such actions would have been a flagrant violation of the DEA’s requirements of conduct.

The costs are the newest black eye for the DEA, which has been beset by repeated misconduct scandals which have landed a rising listing of former brokers behind bars. Simply final week, one other former DEA agent in Arkansas was sentenced to greater than 11 years in jail for taking hundreds of {dollars} in bribes from a drug trafficker.

The most recent costs have additionally despatched a chill by South Florida’s close-knit, fiercely aggressive narco-defense circles due to Recio’s robust ties to federal legislation enforcement and private-sector attorneys.

The costs stemmed from a long-running federal investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, which greater than two years in the past took the bizarre step of wiretapping Recio as a part of an inquiry into the move of data between the DEA and Miami attorneys representing narcotraffickers and cash launderers from Colombia.

The FBI wiretapped Recio for not less than three months whereas he labored in his post-retirement job as a personal investigator for protection attorneys.

As a part of the shady dealings, he at one level wrote a $2,500 test to an organization co-owned by an unnamed member of Costanzo’s household, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. The fee seems to have been utilized by Costanzo to restore a Porsche he owned, in accordance with an e mail trade in regards to the automobile between the DEA agent and an unnamed protection lawyer Recio was working with as a personal investigator.

In 2019, the identical member of the family obtained $50,000 from an organization owned by a neighborhood Florida police detective. The funds had been utilized by Costanzo for a down fee on a condominium, in accordance with the indictment.

Recio’s protection lawyer, Phil Reizenstein, beforehand instructed AP that Recio’s work on instances had been “impeccable.”

“I’ve no considerations that he did something that was near being unlawful,” he stated on the time. “He devoted his profession to the DEA. He has held himself to the best requirements and the identical law-abiding beliefs in his non-public work.”

Recio completed his greater than twenty years with the DEA as an assistant particular agent in command of the DEA’s Miami area division, specializing in instances involving illicit funds. Instantly after retiring, he launched a Miami-based enterprise referred to as International Authorized Consulting, which in accordance with its web site offers non-public investigations, anti-money laundering options and different authorized companies.

Recio as soon as supervised highly-sensitive cash laundering investigations involving Jose Irizarry, a former standout DEA agent within the Miami workplace who was sentenced in December to greater than 12 years in federal jail for conspiring to launder cash with a Colombian cartel and utilizing badge to construct a lavish way of life of pricey automobiles, events on yachts and Tiffany jewellery. Earlier than being locked away, Irizarry blamed the DEA for fostering a tradition of corruption and present taking that he stated desensitized him to the implications of violating the legislation.

Goodman reported from Cleveland, Mustian from New Orleans.