Ex-cop’s sick 2nd act Feds detail drug-dealing and ID-stealing operation in bid to block bail
After resigning from the NYPD for beating a handcuffed suspect, an ex-cop pursued a second career as a leader of a drug trafficking organization that imported meth from Mexico and daterape drugs from China, prosecutors say.
John Cicero and four others were charged in February with running the drug ring that moved “large quantities” of meth and GBL into the city and Westchester. In a new filing in Manhattan Federal Court opposing Cicero’s request for bail, prosecutors revealed the extent of the ex-cop’s alleged criminal enterprise.
Cicero, 38, was busted on Feb. 19 at the Andaz Wall Street Hotel in a room rented under a fake name, prosecutors said. The feds found meth and GBL in the room.
Cicero had a Connecticut ID with his photo and a fake name, along with a bank card with the alias, according to prosecutors.
Further searches, including at the Westchester co-op apartment belonging to Cicero’s parents, found credit card-making machines and notebooks with personal information of 89 people, prosecutors wrote.
In 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 6.6 kilos of GBL from China bound for the apartment belonging to Cicero’s parents, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Felton. An investigation into a meth supplier in Mexico whose name was saved in Cicero’s phone is ongoing, the prosecutor wrote. The phone also had a photo of multiple kilos of meth on a scale, authorities say.
“The vast, no-doubt-aboutit evidence of Cicero’s guilt and his leadership role create every incentive for the exNYPD officer to flee and not serve the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence that he faces, especially given his familiarity with credit cardmaking equipment, notebooks full of stolen identities, and use of an alias sufficient to dupe a luxury hotel,” Felton wrote.
Cicero pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for beating a handcuffed man on a Bronx sidewalk on Jan. 5, 2010. He received only 400 hours of community service — though prosecutors had asked for a 60-day jail sentence.
“The indisputably dangerous offense conduct is all the more troubling given Cicero’s conduct while employed by the New York Police Department, where he left the police force following a troubling, violent incident captured on video by a civilian in which Cicero punched and slammed a handcuffed arrestee’s head into the ground,” Felton wrote.
His familiarity with law enforcement did not prevent Cicero from allegedly discussing drug deals over the phone with his co-defendant, Irma Materasso, while she was doing time at a New York State prison.
In one recorded call on Feb. 12, Cicero complained that a woman named “Kristina” was stealing his drug customers and using a broken arm as an excuse for dodging his calls.
“That’s only the first arm that’s broken. Keep on ignoring me and you’re gonna have a second arm broken,” Cicero allegedly said he wanted to tell “Kristina.”