NEW YORK (AP) — A federal choose Wednesday sentenced a longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent to 4 years in jail for leaking DEA intelligence to protection legal professionals in a $100,000 bribery scheme that prosecutors mentioned jeopardized drug instances and the lives of confidential informants.
John Costanzo Jr. was discovered responsible final yr of bribery and honest-services wire fraud, becoming a member of a growing list of DEA brokers convicted of federal crimes. One other former DEA supervisor, Manny Recio, is scheduled to be sentenced subsequent month in the identical case.
U.S. District Court docket Choose Paul Oetken, in handing down his sentence, famous that the 49-year-old Costanzo was “particularly culpable” as a supervisor as a result of he “knew what he was doing was incorrect.”
Costanzo, addressing the choose earlier than sentencing, expressed remorse for his actions. “That is my cross to bear,” he mentioned. “I’ll attempt to discover a silver lining in all of this.”
Prosecutors urged the choose to condemn Costanzo to no less than seven years behind bars, saying he abused the tradecraft he mastered as a narcotics investigator steeped on this planet of cash laundering. He labored in supervisory roles in Miami and later at DEA headquarters outdoors Washington, D.C.
“Costanzo acted purely out of greed,” prosecutors wrote in courtroom papers. “He used his community, connections and abilities to carry himself above the legislation and generate profits for leaking legislation enforcement secrets and techniques, undermining all the things he purported to face for.”
A lot of the case turned on textual content messages and wiretapped telephone calls between Costanzo and Recio, who remained shut after Recio retired from DEA in 2018 and commenced working as a personal investigator for Miami protection legal professionals.
Prosecutors allege that attorneys David Macey and Luis Guerra bankrolled the bribery scheme and used the leaked data to method new shoppers dealing with federal drug expenses. Macey and Guerra haven’t been charged however prosecutors in January requested the courtroom for permission to entry usually privileged communications between Recio and the attorneys as a part of what they described as an “ongoing” investigation.
The DEA didn’t reply to a request for remark. Costanzo’s sentencing got here lower than two weeks after a federal jury in Buffalo, New York, convicted one other veteran DEA agent of obstruction of justice and mendacity to federal brokers in a sprawling corruption case.
Over the course of a yr, Recio repeatedly requested Costanzo to question names in a confidential DEA database to maintain abreast of federal investigations that will curiosity his new employers. The 2 additionally mentioned the timing of high-profile arrests and the exact date in 2019 when prosecutors deliberate to convey expenses in opposition to businessman Alex Saab, a prime prison goal in Venezuela and suspected bag man for the nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro.
In change, prosecutors mentioned, Recio secretly funneled bribes to Costanzo, together with aircraft tickets and a $50,000 down fee on a apartment in suburban Coral Gables.
The conspiracy relied on middlemen, together with Costanzo’s father, himself a retired and embellished DEA agent who prosecutors mentioned lied to the FBI. Prosecutors mentioned Costanzo and Recio additionally used sham invoices and an organization itemizing its tackle as a UPS retailer to disguise the bribe funds whereas deleting tons of of messages and calls to a burner telephone.
In requesting a sentence of probation, Costanzo obtained letters of assist from a number of former colleagues, together with three present DEA brokers and supervisors who described him as a devoted public servant, beneficiant pal and skilled in illicit finance.
Costanzo’s lawyer mentioned his shopper’s solely ambition was to comply with within the footsteps of his father, John Costanzo Sr., a retired DEA agent who served for years in Italy and who’s now battling pancreatic most cancers.
“Not being current for his hero’s waning days and closing months would break John perpetually,” protection lawyer Marc Mukasey argued in a pre-sentencing memo. “That could be a punishment he doesn’t deserve.”
Prosecutors, nevertheless, painted a much less charitable view of the father-son relationship, pointing to the elder Costanzo’s position as a conduit for a $50,000 bribe fee that was used to buy a Miami townhouse.
“Let this be a message to all public officers who’re tempted to revenue illegally from their service — there will likely be severe penalties,” Manhattan U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams mentioned.
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Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana, Goodman from Miami.
