Veteran DEA Agent Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Leaking Intelligence in Miami Corruption Plot

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a longtime U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent to four years in prison for leaking DEA intelligence to defense attorneys in a $100,000 bribery scheme that prosecutors say jeopardized drug deals and the lives of confidential informants.

John Costanzo Jr. was convicted last year of honest services bribery and wire fraud, joining a growing list of DEA agents convicted of federal crimes. Another former DEA supervisor, Manny Recio, is expected to be sentenced next month in the same case.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken, in handing down his sentence, noted that Costanzo, 49, was “particularly culpable” as a supervisor because he “knew what he was doing was wrong.”

Costanzo, speaking to the judge before sentencing, expressed regret for his actions. “This is my cross to bear,” he said. “I’m going to try to find a silver lining in all of this.”

Prosecutors urged the judge to sentence Costanzo to at least seven years in prison, saying he abused the craft he mastered as a narcotics investigator steeped in the world of money laundering. He held supervisory positions in Miami and then at DEA headquarters outside Washington, DC.

“Costanzo acted solely out of greed,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “He used his network, connections and skills to stay above the law and make money by leaking law enforcement secrets, undermining everything he claimed to stand for. »

Much of the case hinged on text messages and wiretapped phone calls between Costanzo and Recio, who remained close after Recio retired from the DEA in 2018 and began working as a private investigator for the lawyers of Miami’s defense.

Prosecutors say attorneys David Macey and Luis Guerra financed the bribery scheme and used the leaked information to approach new clients facing federal drug charges. Macey and Guerra have not been charged, but prosecutors in January asked the court for permission to access normally privileged communications between Recio and attorneys as part of what they described as an “ongoing” investigation. “.

The DEA did not respond to a request for comment. Costanzo’s conviction came less than two weeks after a federal jury in Buffalo, New York, convicted another veteran DEA agent of obstructing justice and lying to federal agents in a wide-ranging corruption case.

Over the course of a year, Recio repeatedly asked Costanzo to query names in a confidential DEA database in order to stay abreast of federal investigations that might be of interest to his new employers. The two men also discussed the timing of the high-profile arrests and exactly when in 2019 prosecutors planned to bring charges against businessman Alex Saab, one of Venezuela’s top criminal targets and the alleged pocketman of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro.

In exchange, prosecutors said, Recio secretly paid bribes to Costanzo, including plane tickets and a $50,000 down payment for a condo in suburban Coral Gables.

The plot relied on middlemen, including Costanzo’s father, himself a retired and decorated DEA agent who prosecutors say lied to the FBI. Prosecutors said Costanzo and Recio also used fake invoices and a company listing his address as a UPS store to hide the bribe payments while deleting hundreds of messages and calls on a mobile phone.

In seeking a probation sentence, Costanzo obtained letters of support from several former colleagues, including three current DEA agents and supervisors who described him as a dedicated public servant, a generous friend and an expert in illicit finance.

Costanzo’s lawyer said his client’s only ambition was to follow in the footsteps of his father, John Costanzo Sr., a retired DEA agent who served for years in Italy and is now fighting against pancreatic cancer.

“Not being present during his hero’s final days and months would break John forever,” defense attorney Marc Mukasey argued in a pre-sentencing memo. “It’s a punishment he doesn’t deserve.”

Prosecutors, however, painted a less charitable picture of the father-son relationship, highlighting the elder Costanzo’s role as a go-between for a $50,000 bribe that was used to buy a townhouse at Miami.

“Let this be a message to all public officials who are tempted to illegally profit from their services: There will be serious consequences,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

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Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana, Goodman from Miami.