MIAMI – A federal jury convicted two longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supervisors Wednesday of leaking confidential facts to defense attorneys as portion of a bribery conspiracy that prosecutors say imperiled higher-profile conditions and the lives of overseas drug informants.
The Manhattan jury uncovered John Costanzo Jr. and Manny Recio responsible of bribery and genuine-services wire fraud following a two-week demo that cast a harsh gentle on DEA’s managing of authorities techniques, together with testimony about one breach so delicate the judge closed the courtroom to prevent what he named “really serious diplomatic repercussions.”
“It really is about greed and corruption,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Deininger reported in her closing argument. “What they had been executing was mistaken, and they realized it.”
Recio and Costanzo be part of a rising list of far more than a dozen DEA brokers convicted of federal charges in the latest several years, together with just one who laundered income for Colombian cartels. A different is scheduled to stand trial in January on prices he took $250,000 in bribes to secure the Mafia in Buffalo, New York.
The DEA declined to remark on the verdict.
Considerably of the case turned on textual content messages and wiretapped phone calls amongst the longtime lawmen, who remained shut right after Recio retired from DEA in 2018 and began recruiting consumers as a non-public investigator for Miami protection legal professionals.
Recio repeatedly questioned Costanzo to query names in a private DEA databases to continue to keep abreast of federal investigations that would fascination his new companies. The two also mentioned the timing of large-profile arrests and the specific date in 2019 when prosecutors planned to bring expenses against businessman Alex Saab, a leading felony target in Venezuela and suspected bag male for the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro.
In trade, prosecutors claimed, Recio secretly funneled $73,000 in buys to Costanzo, which include airplane tickets and a down payment on his apartment in suburban Coral Gables, Florida.
The plan relied on middlemen, such as Costanzo’s father, himself a retired and adorned DEA agent who prosecutors stated lied to the FBI. Prosecutors stated Costanzo and Recio also used sham invoices and a business listing its handle as a UPS shop to disguise the bribe payments although deleting hundreds of messages and phone calls to a burner cellular phone.
“About and around they hid and lied,” Deininger said. “Recio and Costanzo cared so much about the money that they set men and women and investigations at danger.”
Recio and Costanzo did not testify but have extended denied the expenses. Their lawyers claimed prosecutors unsuccessful to join the payments to the leaks, portraying the investigation as speculative and sloppy.
“That is a impressive failure of proof,” defense law firm Marc Mukasey informed jurors in his summation. “In a circumstance about bribery and conspiracy, no 1 testified about bribery or conspiracy.”
The defense also attacked the credibility of critical witness Jorge Hernández, a profession criminal and snitch who initially implicated Recio and wore a wire for the FBI to record him. Hernández, a beefy, bald-headed figure regarded by the Spanish nickname Boliche – bowling ball – explained he experienced been blacklisted as an informant by the DEA and would be executed inside of “two hrs” need to he at any time return to his native Colombia.
Recio and Costanzo confirmed small emotion as they listened to the verdict acquiring them guilty on four legal counts just about every.
“It was a tricky scenario mainly because we all believe in law enforcement,” the jury forewoman, speaking on the issue of anonymity, explained to The Involved Press. “But as a community official, the general public expects a specific typical of conduct.”
The proceedings had been noteworthy for other outstanding figures who prevented fees, which include Miami protection attorneys Luis Guerra and David Macey, who were being stated consistently yet not named as witnesses.
The lawyers valued progress observe of federal arrests as they courted deep-pocketed clients, typically with the purpose of brokering a cooperation arrangement with the governing administration. Prosecutors informed jurors the “crooked attorneys” had “paid out handsomely for DEA strategies” but they have not described why neither was indicted.
Guerra and Macey have not responded to recurring requests for comment. Nor has the Florida Bar, which lists the two attorneys as members in superior standing.
“This demo unveiled the dim underbelly of the drug protection bar,” claimed Bonnie Klapper, a previous federal prosecutor who now defends accused funds launderers and drug traffickers. “If the evidence is as was presented through the demo, it is stunning that the lawyers themselves ended up not billed.”
