Veteran Miami DEA agents charged in bribery conspiracy
A current U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a former supervisor in the agency were charged Friday with leaking confidential law enforcement information to defense lawyers in Miami in exchange for $70,000 in cash.
A five-count indictment unsealed in New York charges the agent, John Costanzo Jr., with accepting bribes to provide sensitive information about pending investigations to Manny Recio, a former Miami supervisor who retired from DEA more than two years ago to work as a private investigator for area defense attorneys. Federal prosecutors allege Recio sought the information to help recruit new clients.
Using a burner phone that Recio purchased for Costanzo, the two men allegedly coordinated unlawful searches of criminal databases, helped DEA targets mislead federal investigators and concealed payments made with the knowledge of the suspects’ defense attorneys.
Proceeds for the scheme were allegedly used by Costanzo to repair his Porsche, purchase airline tickets and make a $50,000 down payment on a condominium.
“Make it look good. This is thirty grand right here,” Recio told Costanzo in a 2019 recorded phone call in which the two discussed a draft submission to prosecutors on behalf of one target, according to court documents.
An attorney for Recio did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Costanzo’s attorney, Marc L. Mukasey, said in an email that “the theory of this case is misguided and he will be vindicated.”
The charges are the latest black eye for the DEA, which has been beset by repeated misconduct scandals that have landed a growing list of former agents behind bars. Just last week, another former DEA agent in Arkansas was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for taking thousands of dollars in bribes from a drug trafficker.
The case has also sent a chill through South Florida’s close-knit, fiercely competitive narco-defense circles because of Recio’s strong ties to federal law enforcement and the high-paid, private-sector lawyers.
“The conduct alleged in the indictment violates the core duty of law enforcement officers to protect and serve the public, rather than to use their access to sensitive information to enrich themselves,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
In interviews with FBI agents in 2019, Costanzo and Recio both denied ever exchanging anything of value as part of the alleged scheme. Such actions would have been a flagrant violation of the DEA’s standards of conduct.
The charges stemmed from a long-running federal investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which more than two years ago took the unusual step of wiretapping Recio as part of an inquiry into the flow of information between the DEA and Miami lawyers representing narcotraffickers and money launderers from Colombia.