NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) — Eight current and retired officers with the New York Police Department were among twelve people arrested on Tuesday for their alleged participation in gun trafficking operations, prosecutors said.
The twelve people arrested, which included five active New York Police Department officers and three who are retired, were charged for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars to transport firearms and stolen merchandise into the state.
According to Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the transported merchandise included stolen slot machines, firearms, stolen cigarettes and counterfeit goods. The firearms included three M-16 rifles, one shotgun and 16 handguns, the majority of which had been defaced to remove or alter the serial numbers on them.
In total, according to the complaint, the goods the defendants illegally transported between October 2010 and March of this year carried a street value of over $1 million. The arrests were the result of a long-term undercover investigation that began in 2009.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and agents from the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau arrested all of the suspects in their homes on Tuesday morning. Among them is a New Jersey corrections officer and a former New York City Sanitation Department police officer.
“The complaint describes how a group of crime fighters took to moonlighting as criminals; how a gang of police officers who should have been keeping guns off the street instead smuggled 20 firearms into the City,” Bharara said, adding that a number of men once charged with enforcing the law are now charged with breaking it.
“An officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer, as well as every member of the public,” he added. “The NYPD is the finest police force in the world, and has done more to protect our city and keep us safe than any comparable force in any city, anywhere.”
The active-duty NYPD officers who were charged were identified as Wiliam Masso, Eddie Goris, John Mahoney, Ali Oklu and Gary Ortiz. Oklu works as a member of the Brooklyn South Task Force, Ortiz works in Brooklyn’s 71st precinct while the others work in Brooklyn’s 68th precinct.
The retired NYPD officers who were charged are Joseph Trischitta, Marco Venezia and Richard Melnik who also worked in Brooklyn’s 68th precinct. Trischitta and Venezia were active-duty officers for a part of the period they allegedly committed the charged offenses.
Also charged are former NYC Department of Sanitation Police Officer Anthony Santiago, active-duty New Jersey Corrections Officer David Kanwisher and associates Michael Ge and Eric Gomer.
“These crimes are without question, reprehensible – particularly conspiring to import untraceable guns and assault rifles into New York. The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. “These crimes, as alleged in the complaint, do nothing but undermine public trust and confidence in law enforcement. We are committed to continuing to work with the Internal Affairs Bureau of the NYPD to root out corruption, wherever it may be.”
wat a shame! there is a saying who is guarding the guards and thats really true.but its just unfortunate that the ones we suppose to trust are the real criminals.