Earlier today, Amaury Abreu, a former police officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn to one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine. Between approximately January 2016 and October 2020, Abreu assisted a multinational drug trafficking organization (DTO) with distributors in the New York-metropolitan area and the Dominican Republic. When sentenced, Abreu faces up to 20 years in prison.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the guilty plea.
“Rather than protect and serve, Officer Abreu helped drug traffickers distribute large amounts of cocaine in the Eastern District of New York by giving them confidential law enforcement information. That was a disgraceful breach of public trust,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “Today’s plea should send the message that police officers who betray the shield and violate the law will be held to account. No one is above the law.”
United States Attorney Peace thanked the New York City Police Department, Internal Affairs Bureau, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office for their assistance in the investigation.
According to the indictment and other court filings, the DTO imported multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine into the United States through a variety of means, including by sending drug couriers on flights to the United States, concealing narcotics in mail and tractor trucks that enter the United States from Mexico, and concealing narcotics in produce shipments that are imported into the United States. Since 2016, law enforcement agents seized more than 350 kilograms of cocaine belonging to the DTO.
During the charged time period, Abreu abused his position as a police officer to protect his co-conspirators by providing information to the DTO about law enforcement procedures, performing warrant checks on members of the DTO using the NYPD arrest database and, on at least one occasion, receiving cocaine from the DTO.
The investigation was led by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, New York City Police Department, Internal Affairs Bureau and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Erin Reid and Andrew Wang are in charge of the prosecution.
The
AMAURY ABREU
Age: 37
Residence: Hauppauge, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-433 (RRM) (RML)