0:02

Welcome to 343

0:04

of FBI retired case

0:07

file review with Jerry Williams. I'm a retired

0:09

agent on a Williams. to show

0:11

a retired agent on

0:13

a mission to show

0:15

you who the FBI

0:17

is my what the FBI

0:19

does my books, my

0:21

blog, and my podcast

0:23

case reviews with former

0:25

colleagues. Today to get

0:27

to speak to retired

0:29

agents Kevin Constantine and Mike

0:31

Karaza. along with Boston Police Department

0:33

Superintendent Frankman review review

0:35

a joint FBI Boston PD

0:38

investigation of corrupt corrupt

0:40

officers officers involved

0:42

in criminal

0:44

acts. The officers

0:47

were engaged identity

0:49

theft, drug

0:51

distribution, obstruction of obstruction

0:53

of justice, robbery,

0:55

threats, and battery, and

0:57

insurance fraud. and

0:59

prominently, the protection

1:01

of shipments of multi-kilogram

1:03

of cocaine. The The

1:06

investigation utilized consensual recordings

1:08

by a cooperating witness,

1:10

a Title witness, a Title

1:12

operation, 2 and up to

1:14

17 undercover agents, including

1:16

legendary undercover agent Jack

1:18

Garcia. Jack This episode

1:20

is dedicated to the

1:22

late to the late Geraldo Jerry Bermuda's,

1:24

one of the primary

1:26

undercover agents for this

1:28

case. May he rest

1:30

in peace. Kevin Constantine

1:33

sir. in the FBI

1:35

for 21 years.

1:37

on the He worked

1:39

on the Boston

1:42

Crime Squad for for

1:44

three years before

1:46

moving to the

1:49

Public Corruption and

1:51

Civil Rights Squad.

1:53

During his career,

1:56

Kevin was the

1:58

primary investigator in

2:01

several sensitive domestic

2:03

and international public

2:05

corruption investigations. In

2:08

recognition of his

2:10

hard work and

2:12

dedication to service,

2:15

Kevin has been

2:17

the recipient of

2:19

numerous awards for

2:22

his investigative efforts. The highlight of

2:24

these being selected by his peers

2:26

as the 2006 Paul F. Kavanaugh

2:29

Award recipient. Currently, Kevin serves as

2:31

a project director at Madison Associates,

2:33

Inc., an international law enforcement service

2:36

where under a DOJ contract he

2:38

is detailed to the FBI's international

2:40

corruption unit at FBI headquarters. Mike

2:43

Karaza served in the FBI for

2:45

27 years. During his career, he

2:47

gained extensive experience in complex investigations,

2:50

including Public Corruption, Foreign Corrupt Practices

2:52

Act, and Financial Crimes as a

2:54

member of and later the supervisor

2:57

of the Boston Division's Public Corruption

2:59

and Civil Rights Squad. Mike served

3:02

as Program Coordinator for Public Corruption

3:04

and Civil Rights Programs within the

3:06

Boston Division's four-state territory. Early in

3:09

his career, he was assigned to

3:11

an economic crime squad and worked

3:13

violent crime and fugitive investigations, including

3:16

FBI Top Ten Fugitive Matters. Mike

3:18

is the recipient of the 2014

3:20

Attorney General's Award for Excellence in

3:23

Investigations and numerous United States Attorney's

3:25

Awards. He was also a nominee

3:27

for the FBI Directors Award on

3:30

three occasions. Currently, Mike is president

3:32

of MJC Investigative Consultants in Winchester,

3:34

Massachusetts. Frank Mancini is a 30-year

3:37

veteran of the Boston Police Department,

3:39

formerly chief of the Bureau of

3:41

Professional Standards, and former commander of

3:44

the Boston Police and City of

3:46

Boston Anti-Corruption Division. responsible for investigating

3:48

police and public official corruption and

3:51

other criminal activities involving all city

3:53

of Boston employees. As superintendent, he

3:56

oversaw and directed over 350 public

3:58

corruption investigations. He is is

4:00

a law enforcement consultant,

4:02

expert witness, subject matter

4:05

expert, and educator in

4:07

areas of criminal justice,

4:09

police management and operations,

4:11

and internal affairs, processes,

4:13

and procedures. This is

4:15

a two -part episode. I

4:17

will post part episode. I will

4:19

post part two, next week. week. Before

4:21

we get to the case review, case need

4:23

to I need to correct a in

4:25

my January email to to

4:28

team members where I

4:30

list the top episodes for

4:32

2024. January 2025 is

4:34

my 9th, not my

4:36

10th podcast anniversary. Believe me,

4:38

next year I'm gonna

4:40

do something huge to celebrate

4:42

my 10th anniversary. Just

4:45

not sure what. I sent

4:47

the January issue of

4:49

my reader team email out

4:51

on Monday, the 6th. So if it

4:53

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4:55

in your inbox yet, please check your

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spam filter and your promotions tab. tab.

5:00

I I want to welcome new

5:02

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5:04

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to join my reader team my

5:08

I talk about I fiction and

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5:12

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5:19

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and as ebooks books are sold books

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are sold on Audible and Spotify. Spotify.

5:27

you for your support. Now here's

5:29

the show the show. I want

5:31

to welcome my to

5:34

welcome my agent Kevin

5:36

Constantine, retired agent

5:38

Michael and

5:40

and retired Boston

5:43

Police Department

5:45

Superintendent superintendent Frank Mancini.

5:47

Hi guys. Hi Jerry. Hi Jerry.

5:49

Well know, a couple of

5:51

months ago, I did a

5:53

case review of a in and

5:55

custody case and one of

5:58

the things that I I and the

6:00

case agent talked about is how

6:02

cases where the FBI is investigating

6:04

a member of their local police

6:06

department can be uncomfortable. But they're

6:08

important cases. Somebody has to do

6:11

it. And we talked about how

6:13

the FBI does their best to

6:15

make sure they're focusing on the

6:17

particular police officer who's gone quote

6:19

unquote bad. and that those relationships

6:22

that they have with the local

6:24

police department continue. And when it

6:26

comes to this case that we're

6:28

going to talk about today, I

6:30

can see how that could also

6:33

be a situation that could be

6:35

awkward or uncomfortable when we talk

6:37

about corruption, public corruption cases involving

6:39

your local police department. So who

6:41

wants to start? Where should we

6:44

start? Well, this is Kevin. you

6:46

know, how the case started. Our

6:48

case started in the summer of

6:50

2003, when we received information from

6:52

the FBI Philadelphia office, that an

6:55

individual was arrested by the ATF

6:57

in the Philadelphia area. And he

6:59

was charged with the purchase of

7:01

straw gun purchases. He was a

7:03

career criminal. He was looking at

7:06

possibly 15 years incarceration. And he

7:08

had provided information to both the

7:10

ATF and the ATF and the

7:12

FBI. about a wide range of

7:14

criminal activity, not only in Philadelphia,

7:17

but in the Boston area where

7:19

the CW or the individual was

7:21

from. So what I did is

7:23

I went down to Philadelphia a

7:26

couple months later with a couple

7:28

prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office

7:30

in Massachusetts to interview this individual

7:32

and to try to get a

7:34

better understanding of the information that

7:37

he had about criminal activity in

7:39

the Boston area. The prosecuted design

7:41

was an individual by the name

7:43

of Mark Miller, who was, you

7:45

know, the AUSA and the District

7:48

of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. And so he

7:50

was kind of the lead. Like

7:52

our prosecutors were from the white

7:54

collar crime section of the U.S.

7:56

Attorney's Office in Boston. And I

7:59

went down there also with investigators

8:01

from the postal inspector to interview

8:03

this person, who later became our

8:05

CW. And during this interview, which

8:07

probably lasted about four hours, you

8:10

know, he had information back in

8:12

Boston about health care fraud. He

8:14

had associations with some possible mobsters

8:16

in Boston. He was involved in

8:18

criminal activity, all growing up, whether

8:21

it be gang activity in Boston.

8:23

But what brought his attention to

8:25

us was he had information that

8:27

he sold stolen gift cards to

8:30

individuals in the Boston Police Department.

8:32

He was part of an identity

8:34

theft ring that we later learned

8:36

him more information about, and he

8:38

had sold the stolen gift cards

8:41

to an individual in the Boston

8:43

Police Department. We didn't have the

8:45

individual's name, we just had... a

8:47

rough description of who the individual

8:49

was. So it probably took about

8:52

two or three months for us

8:54

to work with the U.S. Attorney's

8:56

Office, both in Philadelphia and U.S.

8:58

Attorney's Office in the District of

9:00

Massachusetts, as well as the ATF

9:03

to get this individual back to

9:05

Massachusetts so he could work both

9:07

with us, the ATF and the

9:09

DEA and a wide range of

9:11

criminal activity. Okay, so this cooperating

9:14

source or cooperating witness was not

9:16

assigned to an FBI agent in

9:18

the Philadelphia office? No, because most

9:20

of his knowledge of criminal activity

9:22

was back in Massachusetts. He was

9:25

based in Boston. You know, he

9:27

was arrested out in Philadelphia by

9:29

the ATA, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In this

9:31

case was transferred to pretrial services

9:34

in Boston, so that we could

9:36

work with him. And Mike, you

9:38

know, Kevin is saying we are

9:40

you the we were you working

9:42

on this case with Kevin from

9:45

the very beginning? I hope he's

9:47

referencing me. So once you get

9:49

this individual back to the Boston

9:51

area, what happens next? Well. First,

9:53

we we to

9:56

make sure to

9:58

see if his

10:00

information his held any

10:02

weight. held any weight. So we

10:04

looked into the allegations. At that

10:06

time, Mike was on the White

10:08

Collie squad. I was I was on the

10:10

squad. Corruption we open up a dual investigation,

10:13

both white collar crime and public corruption. Crime

10:15

and started first We the

10:17

CW tasking the CW to see, you

10:19

know, if if meet with meet with

10:21

some of the the on the White Collie Crime,

10:23

health care allegations of criminal activity.

10:26

That That probably didn't really go anywhere. We

10:28

probably spent a couple of months working

10:31

on that with months witness and that really

10:33

didn't go anywhere. But we did follow up

10:35

on the allegations we did this individual was

10:37

part of this identity theft was part of this

10:39

I could turn over to Mike ring. And of

10:41

pursued the to Mike how we portion of this. the identity

10:43

theft we started looking at

10:46

the we started looking at the of

10:48

the case the the information.

10:50

information, he had identified a number number of

10:52

people in law enforcement who had

10:54

previously sold gift cards to. to.

10:56

One issue we had was he

10:58

was still. associated with the theft

11:00

ring that was still. committing

11:02

identity theft in Boston. They

11:05

had a a pretty significant

11:07

network. of of runners who

11:09

would grab pocketbooks, wallets. of

11:12

any type of identification information they

11:14

could get. and and then credit

11:16

at various retailers in and

11:18

around the Boston area. Boston their

11:21

scheme mainly involved getting

11:23

getting the instant credit. initially

11:25

purchasing gift cards right away. away

11:27

and then selling the gift cards on the

11:29

street for 50 cents on the dollar. on

11:32

the dollar. So profitable in that. in

11:34

The only requirement to get

11:36

the get credit is to send

11:38

someone is to send Depot, into Home Depot

11:40

City. City the fake ID, fill

11:43

out the instant credit credit app

11:45

register. and be granted

11:47

granted $5 ,000 in instant credit.

11:49

would They would then take

11:51

that available credit, purchase gift

11:53

cards, and then bring the the gift

11:56

cards back to the ring and then the

11:58

And then the had had people that would sell

12:00

the gift cards on the street,

12:02

the cooperating witness Troy being one

12:04

of those. So we had him

12:06

reconnect with the ring. We did

12:09

a couple of transactions initially. One

12:11

was an individual by the name

12:13

of Miguel Coriano who worked for,

12:15

I believe Suffolk County Sheriff's Office.

12:17

The second individual who we had

12:19

him approach was Roberto Palito, who

12:21

was very willing to pick up

12:23

where he left off purchasing gift

12:25

cards from Troy. At that point,

12:27

we knew there were some issues

12:30

if Troy was working with the

12:32

stolen gift card ring. So what

12:34

we did is obtain authority to

12:36

use case funds to purchase gift

12:38

cards, Home Depot, Lowe's, wherever else,

12:40

with case funds, and then we

12:42

would give them to the cooperator

12:44

Troy to sell the polito and

12:46

whoever else. What is a really

12:48

nice development of the case is

12:51

in selling these gift cards we

12:53

were able to establish. connections with

12:55

corporate security at all the retailers.

12:57

So whenever the cards were used

12:59

by Toledo or anyone else, we

13:01

could obtain video of them at

13:03

the cash register, the receipt for

13:05

what they purchased. And so it

13:07

instantly gave a way of tracing

13:09

the transaction to the police officer

13:12

in disputeable. So that is what

13:14

took us initially into Toledo. And

13:16

this is a good point to

13:18

segue into. moving from the stolen

13:20

gift card ring to the other,

13:22

the later parts of the case.

13:24

Jerry, let me also reference, you

13:26

know, when we first went back

13:28

to Boston and having our CW

13:30

reach out to this individual that

13:33

we knew possibly was a Boston

13:35

police officer, all we had was

13:37

this information, his last name was

13:39

spelled, P-O-L-I-T-O, that's all we had.

13:41

And so when we set up

13:43

the first controlled by which we

13:45

wired up our CW to meet

13:47

with this individual Toledo to sell.

13:49

I think it was $2,500 worth

13:51

of gift cards for $1250. All

13:54

we knew, we didn't know if

13:56

he was a Boston police officer

13:58

or not. So when he met

14:00

with this individual, wired him up,

14:02

went into the car, they did

14:04

the exchange and purchased, Mike and

14:06

I were out there doing surveillance.

14:08

We took the tag down, and

14:10

then as soon as the CW

14:12

came back, we depriefed him, we

14:15

took the money, we asked him

14:17

what individual said, he explained and

14:19

gave a debrief. We ran the

14:21

tag, and it came back to

14:23

an individual by the name of

14:25

Evelyn Toledo. So then we knew

14:27

the last name of this individual

14:29

was Toledo. You had the correct

14:31

spelling at that time. We had

14:33

the correct spelling and it was

14:36

immediately that afternoon, actually, Mike and

14:38

I went over to the anti-corruption

14:40

of Boston Police Department anti-corruption unit,

14:42

which is a couple blocks away

14:44

from where we did the control

14:46

by in sale. And we went

14:48

and explained to what we were

14:50

doing, and this is the tag

14:52

we have, and we think that

14:55

we're dealing with a Boston police

14:57

officer. Now that's kind of surprising

14:59

to me that you did that

15:01

so quickly. That obviously means that

15:03

you have a good relationship with

15:05

the public corruption or internal affairs

15:07

of the Boston PD that you

15:09

would provide that information at such

15:11

a initial stage of the investigation.

15:13

Well I won't take credit for

15:16

what the Boston Police Department and

15:18

I corruption unit does, but I

15:20

will say it's just an amazing

15:22

unit. We've had a relationship, at

15:24

least FBI Boston Public Corruption Unit,

15:26

established a relationship with the Boston

15:28

Police Department of Corruption Unit, a

15:30

couple years before I got to

15:32

the squad, and that relationship was

15:34

kind of fostered and established by

15:37

one of the most, probably one

15:39

of the better agents we had

15:41

in the Boston Division, Craig Rang,

15:43

who was a good friend of

15:45

both Mike and I, and he

15:47

was on C1 at the time,

15:49

and he established an amazing relationship

15:51

with this unit. And Mike and

15:53

I just were able to foster

15:55

it. So any time FBI Boston

15:58

had any criminal case again. a

16:00

Boston police officer. a city

16:02

official, we official. jointly with

16:04

worked Police with Boston Police Department.

16:07

unit and unit and we went with

16:09

them, we usually go to them. same day

16:11

that same day with the

16:13

allegations. We would never work

16:15

a case against the Boston

16:17

Police official and or a city official city

16:19

official without the assistance of

16:21

the And I unit. is I think

16:23

this is probably a good

16:25

time for Superintendent Mancini. to to kind

16:27

of explain what the the unit does and their

16:29

role and with the FBI. with the

16:32

FBI. Great. Nice Kevin. One of the,

16:34

and Jerry, brought it up, you mentioned

16:36

the word trust, the and I think

16:38

that's probably the most important aspect. important when

16:40

we're talking about about

16:42

interagency or cooperation and partnership partnership

16:44

between corruption units units

16:47

levels different levels of

16:49

government. there's been a

16:51

been a lot of territorial

16:53

withholding of information between agencies,

16:55

especially one. one. It's between the

16:57

federal, state, and local law

16:59

enforcement agencies. But when I

17:01

was I was picked Anti-Corruption

17:03

the anti -corruption division in

17:05

Boston. I realized immediately that that we

17:08

already and established professional trusting trusting

17:10

between between the FBI

17:12

public and the anti-corruption unit Boston

17:14

Police. The Boston Police

17:16

was committed to creating

17:18

a unit that would

17:20

cooperate with the federal

17:22

government, the U .S. Attorney's

17:24

the FBI, as well

17:26

as state agencies agencies, not

17:28

only Boston police corruption,

17:30

but as I recall,

17:32

half of our cases

17:34

half of our cases involved, the city of

17:36

Boston employees at that time about

17:38

17,000, and any case that the

17:40

FBI would ask us to

17:42

assist So there was already a was

17:44

already a pre -existing trust. remember I

17:46

remember taking the call from Kevin. letting me

17:49

know know that they had identified

17:51

a Boston police officer named named

17:53

Toledo. and they wanted to come to the office

17:55

to discuss it. Of course, I said I said, but

17:57

I was a little bit surprised. bit surprised.

18:00

like you mentioned, they contacted us

18:02

right away. And Kevin mentions prior

18:04

years before the relationship with Agent

18:07

Rang and others in the corruption

18:09

unit that were there before I

18:11

got there. So that is a

18:14

critical element, I think, in my

18:16

experience investigating corruption, having a trusting

18:18

relationship between agencies that are committed

18:21

to investigating corruption at the federal,

18:23

state, and local level. And that

18:25

will share information. and work together

18:28

and share everything they have. Now,

18:30

in our particular case, one point

18:32

during the investigation, I think the

18:35

investigation was about four years long,

18:37

and there was an issue of

18:39

a leak that we didn't know

18:42

where it came from, but eventually

18:44

it was identified as coming out

18:46

of my unit, and we can

18:49

talk about that later, but you're

18:51

right. The trust aspect is absolutely

18:53

critical. One thing I have to

18:56

bring up, because I think everyone

18:58

that's listening. that knows the John

19:00

Connolly Whitey Bolger situation has this

19:03

impression that there was animosity between

19:05

the FBI and the Boston Police

19:07

Department and the course of Boston

19:10

State Police. We don't need to

19:12

get into it deep, but I

19:14

just want to address that what

19:17

it sounds like a misconception. Well,

19:19

Jerry, I come from a whole

19:21

family of law enforcement. I'm a

19:24

third generation. law enforcement. And when

19:26

I started working public corruption, I

19:29

remember my dad, who at the

19:31

time was it administrative for the

19:33

DEA. And his big concern with

19:36

me working corruption was not to

19:38

go after police officers that have

19:40

not done criminal acts, you know,

19:43

if it's more internal investigations. And

19:45

that always kind of stuck with

19:47

me. And I don't think, and

19:50

same for Mike, we establish an

19:52

amazing relationship with Boston police department

19:54

and an corruption. We also established

19:57

an amazing relationship with the Massachusetts

19:59

State. police and terminal affairs unit.

20:01

And I think it was because

20:04

they could trust us and we

20:06

could trust them. You know, in

20:08

the past, maybe that wasn't the

20:11

case, but I think both Mike

20:13

and I and I think people

20:15

that we worked with over the

20:18

years saw that logo trust and

20:20

they're continuing that level of trust.

20:22

And I respect everything law enforcement

20:25

officials have to encounter every single

20:27

day. And I don't think Mike

20:29

I or Frank have ever gone

20:32

out and looked for public corruption

20:34

activity. It comes to us and

20:36

if it comes to us, we're

20:39

going to look at it. Marketing

20:41

is hard. But I'll tell you

20:43

a little secret. It doesn't have

20:46

to be. Let me point something

20:48

out. You're listening to a podcast

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right now and it's great. You

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love the host. You seek it

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hard acre love loss that we

21:30

were looking into these officers. Typically

21:33

they were officers who had a

21:35

number of issues over the career

21:37

that because of unions, because of

21:40

whatever else, the department had trouble

21:42

disciplining or getting rid of the

21:44

problem officers. So the majority of

21:47

the police corruption cases we worked.

21:49

There was almost relief from Boston

21:51

police, the state police, or whatever.

21:54

department because if the cases were

21:56

successful we were able to

21:58

do what the

22:01

infrastructure could be at the departments.

22:03

Frank, would you would you like to weigh in

22:05

on this? Yes, and Mike is and Mike

22:07

is absolutely correct, because of civil

22:09

service laws in Massachusetts as well

22:11

as other what you'll what you'll have

22:13

is some questionable. that

22:15

that to to get on

22:17

the department. And then once they go

22:19

through their probationary period, going through the the

22:22

six month then a year on probation, a year

22:24

it's a year and a half. it's a

22:26

year where they can be fired

22:28

for just about anything. anything. Once they

22:30

that that time period, that level

22:32

of experience, they come then they come

22:34

under union protection, they come under

22:37

civil service protection and so forth. and

22:39

any type of any type of misconduct

22:41

investigation, any any type of discipline

22:43

that's imposed on these officers, they they

22:45

have certain legal rights so appeal

22:47

and so forth and so on.

22:49

So it becomes problematic on numerous

22:51

occasions in the Boston the police The

22:53

police commissioner has rightfully fired individuals

22:55

that in my opinion should have

22:58

been fired have have never been police

23:00

officers, but been police they were reinstated.

23:02

they were either through a decision of an

23:04

a decision of through the civil service process.

23:06

the civil service process. So once what mentioned

23:08

is that once we we focused

23:10

in on on a criminal then it

23:13

became not a it became not a

23:15

misconduct investigation involving the internal affairs

23:17

process where a state, for for example, could

23:19

have a police officer's bill of

23:21

of so forth. so Now it becomes

23:23

a a straight investigation. And

23:26

at that point, the civil service

23:28

is out of the way. Arbitrators

23:30

are out of the way. you You

23:32

simply go for it with your

23:34

federal partners as a criminal investigation

23:36

with the aim to indict, arrest, arrest,

23:38

prosecute, and convict. So when

23:40

we saw we saw a

23:42

problematic officer. a gut I would

23:44

have a gut feeling that certain

23:46

individuals that should never have been

23:48

hired, like like Roberta at some point

23:50

in their career, their are going to

23:52

get to some sort of illegal or

23:54

improper activity because of their badge

23:56

badge. or using their to protect them. Having a

23:59

a criminal case come... up in a way,

24:01

as Mike explained, gives us an

24:03

opportunity to remove them by virtual

24:05

indictment, by virtual criminal prosecution, which

24:08

is a much cleaner way to

24:10

do it, because once the evidence

24:12

is out there about criminal activity

24:14

with police officers, society will accept

24:17

that these individuals end up, as

24:19

well as the rest of the

24:21

police department, when the police case

24:23

was over and he was arrested

24:26

in Florida. when myself and Charlie

24:28

Daly and Buddy Green, the investigators

24:30

assigned in the case, came back

24:32

to Boston, we were met with

24:35

essentially applause from every Boston police

24:37

officer we ran into. A good

24:39

cop does not want a dirty

24:41

cop in the same agency. Now,

24:44

many times they don't want to

24:46

step forward and be the guy

24:48

that brings somebody down, but when

24:50

you have a dedicated unit that

24:53

is committed to this type of

24:55

work, partnership with the FBI, the

24:57

rest of the police agency was

24:59

supportive 100%. Well I think everyone

25:01

listening is absolutely in agreement with

25:04

those actions and they're really pleased

25:06

to hear that from you. All

25:08

right so let's get back to

25:10

the case. Kevin and Mike bring

25:13

this to your attention. What's the

25:15

next step? Are you good to

25:17

go with just what you've done

25:19

or you've decided now? to find

25:22

out everything that Officer Palito might

25:24

be up to? Well, you know,

25:26

we kept on selling gift cards

25:28

to Palito, and I think as

25:31

Mike mentioned, at a certain point,

25:33

we got out of the identity

25:35

theft train. You know, but every

25:37

time our CW met with Pluto,

25:40

additional information would come up, whether

25:42

it be he offered to sell

25:44

the CW's illegal steroids, because Plato

25:46

himself was a steroid user and

25:49

abuser. He sold these steroids to

25:51

other members of the Boston Police

25:53

Department as well as other people.

25:55

He also hosted these after-hours parties

25:58

at a location that he rented

26:00

and it was location that R.C.W.

26:02

referred to as the boom boom

26:04

room. You have to keep mine.

26:07

Plio was not only a Boston

26:09

police officer, making a pretty good

26:11

salary. He owned a barber shop.

26:13

He had interest in the auto

26:16

garage and he also rented this

26:18

location in Hyde Park, which is

26:20

above a auto body place that

26:22

he and another member of the

26:25

Boston Police Department rented so they

26:27

could bring people, bring their, their

26:29

bulk married, just where the place

26:31

they could bring their girlfriends. and

26:34

have some peace and quiet, but

26:36

he hosted these after-hours parties. Sometimes

26:38

monthly, sometimes every other month, you

26:40

know, and at these parties, there'd

26:43

be prostitution, there'll be the sale

26:45

of drugs, drug activity, drug use.

26:47

There are known criminals at these

26:49

parties, and these parties are also

26:52

attended by members of law enforcement,

26:54

not only of Boston Police Department,

26:56

but also local law enforcement. And

26:58

this was information that we were

27:01

getting. Every time our CW met

27:03

with Pluto, yeah, and we would

27:05

debrief him after we had the

27:07

sale of gift cards and he

27:10

would tell us this stuff. So

27:12

if he told us this stuff,

27:14

we needed to substantiate it. So

27:16

we did so. We would wire

27:19

him up and have him go

27:21

to the parties, we would, we

27:23

could also get into the purchase

27:25

of their cocks and steroids. Toledo

27:28

was also a part-time contractor too,

27:30

where he would build decks and

27:32

do. renovations and home repair. He's

27:34

a very talented individual who was

27:37

able to keep a lot of

27:39

balls in the air for a

27:41

pretty long time. And what I

27:43

think was important with Troy as

27:46

he was developing the relationship with

27:48

Officer Plato, he was very good

27:50

at building the rapport with Toledo

27:52

and the relationship grew and Troy

27:55

really fostered that relationship. over the

27:57

first six months to a year,

27:59

the with which with which

28:01

Polito would talk to Troy, who he

28:03

knows is on the wrong side

28:05

of the the from the city. was

28:08

startling when we would get

28:10

the recordings downloaded. how how

28:12

freely he would talk about criminal activity. or

28:15

other things he was

28:17

involved in, it was

28:19

absolutely startling. me ask Frank just

28:21

real quickly. just What do you know about

28:23

do you know about Officer that

28:26

time. I mean, it sounds

28:28

like barely enough time to do

28:30

his his shifts. Well actually you would

28:32

would think that, but when

28:34

you looked at at on the

28:36

surface, the you would see a

28:38

very well together police in terms of

28:40

of appearance took pride in his

28:42

appearance, in terms of his

28:44

day -to -day routine, in terms

28:46

of the shifts, the his

28:48

relationship with other police officers officers

28:50

supervisors. He was, if he

28:53

if he did not dig very deeply

28:55

and just on the surface, he

28:57

was almost the ideal police officer. He

28:59

looked good, he showed up on

29:01

time. did what you wanted him to do. He did it

29:03

correctly. He He was on the SWAT

29:05

which which obviously is an elite unit. And

29:07

he was chosen to was chosen to be

29:09

on that team his of his confidence. He

29:11

He went out there he produced a lot

29:13

of good numbers. a He wrote a lot

29:15

of citations. He was where he was

29:18

supposed to be. But he had this

29:20

secret life. So except for those that for

29:22

those that were involved in this

29:24

extracurricular activities, most people did not

29:26

think he was this type of but

29:28

he was but he was very very smart.

29:30

very smart. said, And I always

29:32

said if Polito had put his

29:34

mind into businesses, would he would have

29:36

been a multi -millionaire because, as as and

29:38

Mike and Mike said, so many had

29:41

so many things going on. We

29:43

had a standing business was he was

29:45

defrauding the city of Boston. Boston. He

29:47

He was running prostitutes through the

29:49

boo room. He had He had

29:51

a him that handled them. He was

29:53

dealing importing, dealing with a steroid importer, and

29:55

he was selling steroids to Boston

29:57

police officers. He He was

29:59

involved. and dealing cocaine in his boom

30:01

boom room. And of course, he set

30:04

up his partner in his auto business,

30:06

the gun, some heroin, and so forth,

30:08

as well as orchestrating or perhaps doing

30:10

himself, I think Mike and Kevin would

30:13

go better, Reagan to his partner's house

30:15

and stealing. I think it was about

30:17

30,000. So we have all these things

30:20

going on and he still found time

30:22

to have a relationship with another woman

30:24

and a child with another woman, both

30:26

his wife and his wife and his

30:29

mistress. have children that attended the same

30:31

school, which is unbelievable how we found

30:33

the time to do this. Yeah, I

30:35

think the more we learned about Pluto

30:38

is the more you saw how greedy

30:40

he was. You know, as Mike mentioned,

30:42

he also owned a contracting company. And

30:44

so when you started buying these gift

30:47

cards, he was selling them these home

30:49

depot and loads of gift cards or

30:51

Best Buy. He was selling them to

30:53

somebody that he was working within this

30:56

construction company. So... He also thought that

30:58

that was a way to make more

31:00

money and it was construction and properties

31:03

and even at that time in the

31:05

Boston area is really expensive and he

31:07

had a pretty good builder he was

31:09

an illegal Irish immigrant that was doing

31:12

a lot of the work for him

31:14

he was purchasing to give cards from

31:16

our CW and then giving him to

31:18

his contractor so he got greedy and

31:21

I think it should be noted that

31:23

for the whole period that we were

31:25

working this case in total. I think

31:27

it was $148,000 worth of gift cards

31:30

were purchased by Palito. And if they

31:32

weren't purchased, Palito would come to the

31:34

CW and say, hey, I need more

31:37

gift cards. We would tell our CW

31:39

say, hey, we weren't going to keep

31:41

on buying these gift cards because we

31:43

were the identity capturing in theory. And

31:46

we would tell him that it's dried

31:48

up, we can't get any more ideas.

31:50

And so that was at the time

31:52

where Palito. suggested that he could provide

31:55

IDs for the identity theft ring. He

31:57

could pull people over to get their

31:59

PII. quote, unquote, give to to the CW, to

32:01

to give to this identity theft ring,

32:03

to get some more credit. some more

32:06

what Polito didn't know is didn't know

32:08

ring with us. So if he

32:10

gave us So if he 20, I I

32:12

think he gave up like approximately 160 IDs

32:14

or people with PIA for us to people with identity

32:17

us to use for this of that

32:19

was And none of that was

32:21

ever shared. It went right into

32:23

the case file. file, but but we

32:25

would use that information. you know, you

32:27

know, that he us us and say, okay. Some

32:29

of these people worked out. out some of them

32:32

didn't, and then be able to sell

32:34

him some gift cards. gift He would

32:36

go out and look for out and look You know,

32:38

Mike and I would sit on New Bear I on

32:40

a Friday afternoon in the summer. on a Friday afternoon

32:42

in the you know, Take vehicles, you know

32:45

we give them to the CW

32:47

the CW provide them CW a

32:49

controlled meeting, a give them the

32:51

meeting give run. to Pluto then he would

32:53

run these then you he'd give it back to. and

32:55

give it back to RCW CW would give it

32:57

to us. to us And then eventually

32:59

that information. that information

33:01

given, put in the file, some gift

33:03

card to say, gift worked out, some of them

33:05

didn't. of them of the things

33:07

we were able to do, One of the things we

33:09

were the gift cards as

33:12

our form of currency with of

33:14

currency with Toledo. And in most

33:16

most cases. cases, once the

33:18

cash leaves law enforcement. almost

33:20

more some possible of the to trace. What we

33:22

realized early on in the case was, was

33:25

he He wants these gift cards.

33:27

They're a cash value. value and we

33:29

we can trace them. the gift the

33:31

gift cards to buy steroids from

33:33

We use the gift cards

33:35

to to buy what he What he

33:37

thought was identity information, he

33:39

was using law enforcement

33:41

networks to obtain. to obtain. We were

33:43

were paying for that information via

33:46

gift via gift a number of other. a

33:48

number of other business ventures

33:50

Troy on with on with we

33:52

almost entirely used

33:54

gift cards. for the currency

33:56

with with Toledo it was

33:59

a fantastic. way to really trace

34:01

by video, by receipt, by gift

34:03

card number, where that money went.

34:05

And again, like I said previously,

34:07

a lot of times when you

34:09

use cash on a illegal transaction,

34:11

you can never find the cash

34:13

unless the person kept it, put

34:15

it in the safe and you

34:17

have a search warrant for the

34:19

house and you find the same

34:21

serial numbers. This was one of

34:23

the really... excellent aspects of the

34:25

case where we had so much

34:27

traceable evidence of money that went

34:29

to Bledo through Troy's hands. I

34:31

would imagine and you might be

34:33

getting to this later but you

34:36

might also be able to identify

34:38

other police officers that may have

34:40

been using these gift cards these

34:42

illegal gift cards and that allows

34:44

you to know who else might

34:46

be knowledgeable to what he's doing

34:48

and complicit. Yeah, and not only

34:50

the gift cards, but also the

34:52

other criminal activity, whether it be

34:54

the illegal steroids, you know, at

34:56

one time when we purchased steroids,

34:58

the CW showed up, we wired

35:00

up to CW to meet with

35:02

Toledo, Pluto showed up on his

35:04

BPD motorcycle, along with another BPD

35:06

motorcycle car to sell these steroids

35:08

to our CW. And we also

35:10

know that Pluto was given these

35:12

stair rights to this. BPD officer,

35:14

Rodriguez. Frank, what are you doing

35:16

as far as the department is

35:18

concerned as you're monitoring this illegal

35:20

activity that Palito is involved in?

35:22

Well, at the time that we

35:24

were contacted by Mike and Kevin,

35:26

of course, I immediately reported to

35:28

my direct report in the Boston

35:30

Police Department, the anti-corruption division, only

35:33

reports to a superintendent. position that

35:35

I held when I retired, but

35:37

that superintendent would only report to

35:39

the police commissioner. So rank in

35:41

terms of communication and reporting. rank

35:43

did not have its privileges on

35:45

any corruption investigation. The ACD would

35:47

report either directly to the police

35:49

commissioner or through to the police

35:51

officer through the superintendent of professional

35:53

standards. And the reporting and lines

35:55

of communication are critical in these

35:57

types of investigations because anybody that

35:59

would go into the anti-corruption division

36:01

that was selected, including the superintendent

36:03

of professional standards, would have to

36:05

sign a six-e letter. And I'm

36:07

sure you're all familiar with that,

36:09

from the U.S. Attorney's office. So

36:11

I was blocked from reporting or

36:13

discussing anything regarding these federal investigations

36:15

that involved U.S. Attorney's office and

36:17

the FBI with anybody unless they

36:19

were cleared by the U.S. Attorney

36:21

through the 6E list. So technically,

36:23

as I explained to every police

36:25

officer that subsequently I worked for,

36:27

which were five of them, and

36:30

my boss at the time, I

36:32

explained to them if the mayor

36:34

is not cleared. to be informed

36:36

about these investigations, you cannot report

36:38

to the mayor what is going

36:40

on here. And that was very,

36:42

very important. And at first, they

36:44

were kind of taken aback. So

36:46

what do you mean I can't

36:48

report to the mayor? I mean,

36:50

the mayor is technically my boss.

36:52

This is what you can't unless

36:54

the US Attorney's office has a

36:56

60-letter signed by the mayor, which

36:58

is not the case. So I

37:00

had to really impress upon them

37:02

the importance of confidentiality and how

37:04

important that is. Then when Koolito

37:06

started becoming pretty much very hot

37:08

in the case, the focus began

37:10

to shift to perhaps expanding the

37:12

investigation and seeing if there were

37:14

other police officers within that network

37:16

that could be involved in this

37:18

type of criminal activity. So when

37:20

I informed my boss at that

37:22

time, when he asked why I'm

37:24

indicted this guy, you've got him

37:27

cold, what is going on here?

37:29

I said, well, there could be

37:31

other police officers involved. in this

37:33

type of activity and sometimes if

37:35

you shake the tree you're going

37:37

to get some stuff falling out

37:39

of the tree which isn't directly

37:41

visible. So that... of a

37:43

little bit of,

37:45

I think, of, I

37:47

think, to boss boss

37:49

at that time

37:51

it was a a

37:53

potential for a

37:55

great scandal. We

37:57

didn't know what

37:59

we were going

38:01

to produce. going to

38:03

I'm glad it

38:05

went forward it my

38:07

recommendation was, yeah,

38:09

we have to

38:11

go forward. was,

38:13

yeah, we have to go if there are others

38:16

that are just as bad as there are others need

38:18

to go just as bad that was my they

38:20

and that was to him. And that was

38:22

communication and was going on. communication

38:25

was that forward. on. All

38:29

All right, so we're at a

38:31

point now the the investigation. I'm looking

38:33

at this summary that you that you

38:35

provided were using

38:37

a a witness. witness

38:40

now You've you've decided to

38:42

kick it up to the

38:44

next level, which is a three

38:46

and make and make this a two

38:49

under cover operation. So let's talk a little talk

38:51

a little bit about that.

38:53

Well, let's Well, let's start with the

38:55

total the title We had a a former

38:57

guy. guy It's probably somebody you

38:59

know, John somebody you know, John was

39:01

our John Foley was absolutely. And I'm

39:03

going to take this moment

39:05

to going to take this moment to

39:07

you a to trash John. I thought you were

39:09

not at all. trash been trying

39:12

to get at all. I'm trying to get John on

39:14

show. As a matter of fact,

39:16

his wife has also been trying

39:18

to get him to do podcast. I

39:20

on will him for you. for you. you.

39:22

you. We're for you. He for was just on

39:24

my wedding. at my wedding. So I'll I mean, I'll tell him

39:26

the cards we got were awesome. we got.

39:29

really should do it, really should do it, John. Yeah,

39:31

let him know that. let him know that. minute,

39:33

though, wait a minute, potential But every

39:35

potential guest will think I'm giving out

39:37

gift cards. And that's not the case. case.

39:39

But John some great Philadelphia cases to

39:41

talk about. to We've heard them all

39:43

20 times. them all 20 times. Well, we would

39:45

like to hear them on the

39:47

podcast because I think they would make

39:49

great episodes. but We'll get

39:52

off of of for now and continue

39:54

on. on. was was a supervisor

39:56

when you were were both on corruption

39:58

squad together. Correct. Yeah. At the time,

40:00

I was on the public eruption

40:03

squad and I was able to

40:05

steal Mike from the white collar

40:07

crime squad. And Mike was a

40:09

well-established agent in the Boston Division

40:11

at the time. I had a

40:13

great reputation. So we began pretty

40:16

close friends. I was like, how

40:18

can I get Mike on our

40:20

squad? We ended up home, Mike

40:22

up to our squad. And then

40:24

we got John coming in from

40:26

headquarters, hot shot supervisor coming in

40:28

and kind of pushed Mike and

40:31

I kind of knew what we

40:33

were doing. but we became very

40:35

close, but he also pushed us.

40:37

But all the corruption squad at

40:39

that time hadn't had a Title

40:41

III wiretap and probably 17 years

40:44

on a pure criminal police corruption

40:46

case. So that's what we kept

40:48

on working on, was trying to

40:50

get enough predicated evidence to move

40:52

to the next step, which would

40:54

be a Title III. It wasn't

40:57

easy, as I said, because we

40:59

hadn't had one in 17 years

41:01

in the division, but we ended

41:03

up going up. with all the

41:05

criminal activity, whether it be the,

41:07

we already knew about the identity

41:10

theft ring, we were still involved

41:12

in identity theft ring, although the

41:14

identity theft ring was being run

41:16

through like and myself. We knew

41:18

the information about the after hours

41:20

parties at the boom boom room.

41:23

We were surveilling them, sending our

41:25

CW into those after hours parties.

41:27

We were surveilling them with the

41:29

Boston Police Department. We were able

41:31

to purchase cocaine from an individual

41:33

that was a host of those

41:35

parties, was a career criminal. We

41:38

were able to purchase steroids from

41:40

Toledo. So the next step was

41:42

a Title III because we knew

41:44

that he possibly was involved with

41:46

other members of Boston Police Department.

41:48

We knew one. We knew one

41:51

by the name of Nelson Carrasquio

41:53

because at one of the after-hours

41:55

parties that Toledo hosted, he introduced

41:57

to CW to Nelson Carrasquio and

41:59

said to the CW, he's a

42:01

hustler just like me. So then

42:04

we knew we had one other

42:06

individual. We also knew that one

42:08

of his associates was an individual

42:10

by the name of Carlos Pizarro.

42:12

and we had received information that

42:14

Fisaro prior to become a Boston

42:17

police officer was part of a

42:19

pretty well-run and active drug organization.

42:21

That was before it became a

42:23

Boston police officer. So the next

42:25

step was a Title III, so

42:27

we worked on getting that and

42:29

it took about three or four

42:32

months to finally get to that

42:34

point. I think we should take

42:36

just a quick sidebar because there

42:38

are people who are listening who...

42:40

may want to become an agent

42:42

one day are just very much

42:45

interested and fascinated by the FBI

42:47

and they may not know what

42:49

we're talking about so why don't

42:51

we let them know what a

42:53

title three and what a group

42:55

two undercover operation what that's all

42:58

about and how you get it

43:00

and who approves it. So the

43:02

group two undercover operation in the

43:04

FBI there are group one and

43:06

group two undercover operations. They grew

43:08

through a very strict review by

43:11

undercover coordinator in your division, as

43:13

well as all executive management, and

43:15

then that is also approved by

43:17

the undercover unit at headquarters. You

43:19

have to write a proposal, identify

43:21

who your targets are, what you

43:24

intend to obtain during the undercover

43:26

operation, and then what crimes you're

43:28

investigating and what authorities you may

43:30

need. for the cooperator and the

43:32

undercover agents. It's a pretty lengthy

43:34

process to write an undercover proposal.

43:36

And if the case has some

43:39

success previously and it's written properly,

43:41

the approval isn't that tough, but

43:43

we had a great undercover coordinator

43:45

in Boston at the time plug

43:47

another Philly guy, Mike McGowan, and

43:49

he was very... helpful in getting

43:52

us through the Boston approval process

43:54

and then on to local curock

43:56

and then it goes to USOU,

43:58

undercover sensitive operations unit. And then

44:00

And then, want to to talk about

44:02

the Title III I do I

44:05

to just do a shout

44:07

out to McGowan because interviewed him

44:09

twice on this podcast. podcast. If

44:11

he's listening, hey, Mike. Hey Mike. Hey Mike. You might

44:13

Hey, Mike. know You might also know that

44:15

Philly guy that was I'm not of Mike. you

44:17

I'm not sure if you knew crying,

44:20

but that was my uncle. my uncle.

44:22

I know I know Frank. Yeah. So a title three is,

44:24

well, you know know what people see

44:26

if they they watched the wire, all stuff,

44:28

it would be a wire a court authorized

44:31

wiretap. And as I mentioned, the as I

44:33

mentioned, and the public Russia

44:35

squad hadn't had had one pure

44:37

public corruption case. case in

44:39

over 17 years. so when our And

44:41

so when our supervisor at the

44:43

time, was Foley, was pushing us. that Let's

44:45

try to get to that next point. in the You

44:47

know, we're also in the midst of

44:50

the investigation to, to, you know, meet

44:52

with the CW, meet with Plato, so

44:54

we're trying to prepare this at the time

44:56

we working with with. a prosecutor, Jeffy R.

44:58

Hahn, who was just phenomenal. was just helped

45:00

us prepare the total us a day of

45:02

it. You know, for me

45:04

to swear out, again, it

45:06

has to go through so many

45:08

levels of approval. levels of from.

45:10

whether it be from the FBI. counsel

45:13

U .S. the FBI to the U.S. Attorney's

45:16

office, to DOJ Washington and

45:18

then a folly. it's presented

45:20

to a federal judge. and

45:22

he or she can either sign it. it.

45:24

or or decline it after reviewing

45:27

the affidavit. And in this

45:29

case, we had we pretty

45:31

aggressive and also was was making sure

45:33

he was reading every single line

45:35

of this affidavit and Judge Lindsay, he ended

45:37

up approving the affidavit for our

45:39

for our which only goes for 30

45:42

days. for 30 we were able to

45:44

extend that wiretap, I think five

45:46

times during that. It's very labor

45:48

It's very labor you have You know, you have,

45:50

I or 20 people sitting on a

45:52

wire. a wire. providing transcripts, updates, to

45:54

the you know, to the U .S.

45:56

office, and then And then after 15

45:58

days, you a to start... writing the new

46:01

affidavit for the next 30 days.

46:03

So we had an amazing assistance

46:05

by a lot of new agents,

46:07

a lot of agents on our

46:09

squad, members of the Boston Police

46:12

Department and a corruption, sat the

46:14

wire, and it was at this

46:16

time when you really get to

46:18

learn more about somebody you're investigating.

46:20

And that's when we learned more

46:22

and more about Pluto, who he

46:25

was associated with. He was having,

46:27

not only was he married and

46:29

also had a girlfriend, they both

46:31

were named Evelyn, by the way.

46:33

convenient. But he was also on

46:35

the phone, I would call it

46:38

grooming other women. He would groom

46:40

him and once he got to

46:42

the point where he was very

46:44

nice with him, he was very

46:46

charismatic. He would make sure he

46:48

called them every day, but as

46:51

soon as he ended up sleeping

46:53

with him, that relationship was over.

46:55

You know, so he had many,

46:57

it wasn't just his wife and

46:59

girlfriend, he had other women on

47:01

the side. I don't know how

47:04

he did it with all the

47:06

work that he was done. And

47:08

I think one important thing to

47:10

highlight Jerry, Jerry, you mentioned, you

47:12

mentioned, for the untrained out there

47:14

that may want to go into

47:17

law enforcement or be an FBI

47:19

agent someday. These are two of

47:21

the most sensitive techniques that law

47:23

enforcement can use or the FBI

47:25

can use. And the word, the

47:27

important word in both of these

47:30

techniques is predication. You have to

47:32

have predication that the individual has

47:34

committed and will commit criminal activities.

47:36

You cannot go through a Title

47:38

III up because you think someone's

47:40

breaking the law. You cannot go

47:43

do an undercover operation because you

47:45

think someone might be doing something.

47:47

It takes tons of groundwork to

47:49

build that predication to take it

47:51

to the next level in both

47:53

of these very sophisticated and sensitive

47:56

techniques. And so it sounds like

47:58

you're getting a lot of information

48:00

off of this Title III. You're

48:02

hearing a lot. of criminal activity

48:04

incriminating statements being made, but you

48:06

decide. to continue this using an

48:09

undercover agent? Why did you make

48:11

that decision? Weren't you getting enough

48:13

in the wire? So here's the

48:15

issue. We had information on at

48:17

least two other corrupt Boston police

48:19

officers, Nelson Karasquio and Carlos Pizarro.

48:21

Troy the CW did not have

48:24

direct access to either of them.

48:26

So he had great access with

48:28

polito. He did not have that

48:30

access with Pazaro and Pazaro. So

48:32

we discussed at that link, how

48:34

can we create a scenario where

48:37

Roberto Plato has to enlist these

48:39

officers and kind of dual purpose?

48:41

At some point, as the case

48:43

progresses, we don't want Troy to

48:45

be the only witness against Plato,

48:47

Kerasquillo and Pizarro, the beauty of

48:50

the undercover is you now bring

48:52

law enforcement officers in that are

48:54

dealing directly with the subjects or

48:56

directly with Toledo. So when it

48:58

comes time to testify or there's

49:00

a trial down the road, the

49:03

caliber of the witness, the undercover

49:05

agent, is almost always better than

49:07

someone who grew up with a

49:09

life of crime. And the evidence

49:11

you obtain in the undercover operation

49:13

becomes very, very valuable because it's

49:16

agent getting the information, transacting the

49:18

illegal activity or so-called the illegal

49:20

activity with the subjects. Yeah, and

49:22

keep in mind, Jerry, it took

49:24

close to two years to get

49:26

to this point. As I mentioned,

49:29

we were still working the identity

49:31

theft portion of the investigation, the

49:33

after-hours parties, illegal after-hours parties, the

49:35

purchase of steroids, other criminal activity

49:37

that we knew Pluto was involved

49:39

in. You know, so it took

49:42

two years to get to this

49:44

point, and it wasn't to probably

49:46

December, where once we are up

49:48

on our first title three, our

49:50

first 30-day title three, we tasked

49:52

the CW with. inquiring

49:55

to see if

49:57

Pluto would be

49:59

interested in some

50:01

type of protection

50:03

detail. At the time, we

50:05

didn't say what it was. it We just said, said,

50:08

You know, just imagine to has some cousins

50:10

has some they might need some help doing

50:12

some type of protection doing see what

50:14

his of was. And we did, we waited

50:16

to do interest We waited to do so so

50:18

we could see what his response would be. his

50:21

not only to the CW, but afterwards

50:23

and who you would talk to

50:25

on the telephone. the telephone. And

50:27

I didn't realize you is two

50:29

years in now. now, are you Are

50:31

you getting any pressure from

50:33

your superintendent? Because now it's two

50:35

Now it's two years that you know

50:37

that you've got a bad apple in

50:39

the and it it sounds like there are

50:41

others. No, there was no pressure was

50:43

no pressure from my at the

50:46

time, Al Goslin. was definitely

50:48

committed. He had no

50:50

love of loss for corrupt police

50:52

officers and he he was fully

50:54

supportive. I I think that like any any

50:56

high -ranking individual that has given their

50:58

life to an life to an I

51:00

think he was in the BPD

51:02

for about 35 years, 35 you hate

51:05

to see the reputation of that

51:07

agency go down. sure And I'm

51:09

sure the FBI feels the same

51:11

way with respect to John But he

51:13

but he was firmly committed to

51:15

the investigation and was never any pressure

51:18

any pressure to end it quickly. And think he

51:20

saw the logic behind bringing in Karasuioi

51:22

on Pizarro. and he was was fully supportive. There's

51:24

no doubt. no doubt. Yeah, I I think

51:26

what has to be brought out too is that even though

51:28

this investigation was going on for two

51:30

years. on for two we did anything. did

51:32

anything, you know, off police was

51:34

with us us from every step,

51:36

every investigative step. step, they were of it. it,

51:39

whether it be the surveillance, the

51:41

subsequent meets with the undercover the

51:43

undercover operation, you know, know, that was way, I mean,

51:45

I way, if I mean, if I

51:47

would say, if we weren't keep

51:49

them involved, I would think the

51:51

superintendent and superintendents bosses. Mr. Gossip would be

51:53

quite upset. upset, but we were going make sure

51:55

that it just case it was gonna work. to

51:57

work. It was going to be a team effort. effort.

52:00

And not just a team effort with

52:02

Mike and myself and the anti-corruption unit,

52:04

but it was also the whole FBI

52:06

Boston public eruption squad. It was all

52:08

our professional support that were involved. You

52:10

know, so Mike and I get credit

52:12

for this investigation, but we probably had

52:14

about 15 to 20 people that had

52:16

to, and this was even before the

52:18

undercover operation, the 15 to 20 people

52:20

in the Boston division, to include our

52:23

evidence technicians, you know, that we're meeting

52:25

with Mike and I probably on a

52:27

twice a week basis to admit money

52:29

that we receive from polito from the

52:31

gift cards, the illegal steroids, the name,

52:33

just a few. You know, so we

52:35

kept their office quite busy for about

52:37

two years. All right, I have to

52:39

ask you about the Boston police officers

52:41

that you said were actually involved in

52:44

the investigation, not just somebody sitting in

52:46

Frank's office, monitoring it. Were they deputized?

52:48

Were they part of a task force?

52:50

What was their involvement to... Of course,

52:52

we know they were on the 6C

52:54

letter, but what else was their involvement

52:56

in the day-to-day investigation of their corrupt

52:58

colleague? Well, I'll let Frank talk about

53:00

who they were. They were not deputized,

53:02

but the anti-corruption unit and the FBI

53:05

public corruption squad. Every single case we

53:07

would be considered a team, you know,

53:09

as far as deputized, no. We didn't

53:11

need them to be deputized because they

53:13

were on a 6C list, and they

53:15

were... part of the investigative team and

53:17

Frank and mentioned who they were. They

53:19

were one of the members of his

53:21

department. If I was a bad guy

53:24

I would never want this guy on

53:26

my tail and that would be Charlie

53:28

Daley. Charlie Daley and Buddy Green work

53:30

with Kevin and Mike on the case

53:32

and I selected them, I handpicked them

53:34

not only for this particular investigation but

53:36

also to when they applied to come

53:38

to the unit. I had experience with

53:40

Charlie Daley. When I was a young

53:42

police officer in Boston and I would

53:45

go to court and work with Charlie

53:47

because Charlie was a prosecutor. in

53:49

district court in West Roxbury. And

53:51

then I was

53:53

promoted to to I

53:55

was put on the

53:57

midnight shift in

53:59

Roxbury, Boston. And one

54:01

night at midnight, at

54:03

I was getting

54:06

ready to do roll

54:08

call for the

54:10

officers, call I call see

54:12

the officers, I see a

54:14

police uniform. a police I said,

54:16

Charlie, what are you doing here? You're a

54:18

prosecutor. are He says, well, I can make

54:20

more money as a cop, Frank. So

54:22

now I'm a police officer. money So as a

54:24

was very smart, I'm a very capable, So Charlie was

54:26

reliable. very that was in the academy with

54:28

me. Buddy was also someone that

54:30

for the for the unit, was completely

54:33

trustworthy. They worked well well together, I and

54:35

I think that's one of the

54:37

important aspects of selecting people to

54:39

partner up with important investigations. I

54:41

I think you have to put

54:43

people together. together that you know can work

54:45

well work well together that are completely

54:47

reliable. this type of case, I I realize

54:49

this was a major. a major, major major

54:51

investigation was going to produce a lot of good

54:53

work in the end, but it was

54:55

also going to be a big splash in

54:57

the media. media. and it could could have

54:59

impacted the public perception of the

55:02

Boston police. The way I used way I used to

55:04

explain it to my is you have you have

55:06

to look at it from the other perspective

55:08

that the that the were involved with the FBI with

55:10

the FBI and cops within their own within their own

55:12

department. any good agency, you have

55:14

to have people. people that are out there,

55:17

digging for the bad guys in any

55:19

organization. Because no organization is immune

55:21

from this type of stuff. And

55:23

I remember I remember John Foley me, he says,

55:25

says Frank, listen. you've got bad cops in

55:27

your department and we've had bad

55:29

FBI agents. FBI And as I recall, I

55:32

he explained that he was involved

55:34

in investigating some FBI agents some said,

55:36

no organization is immune to this.

55:38

The important thing is that you have

55:40

a healthy, legitimate accountability system within

55:42

your department that looks for the stuff

55:44

the stuff and partners up with outside agencies order to

55:47

keep it continuous, look at what

55:49

is going on within the the organization. and

55:51

proactively trying to find

55:53

corrupt find corrupt cops any

55:55

organization. are corrupt employees in

55:57

any organization. Well sad.

56:00

So we're going to be introducing

56:02

undercover agents. I already know one

56:04

of the agents. I call him

56:06

the Forrest Gump of undercover agents

56:09

because whenever I'm doing a case

56:11

review of a major operation, he

56:13

always seems to pop up. So

56:16

tell us more about the undercover

56:18

agents that you decided to insert

56:20

into this investigation. Yeah, so we

56:23

let Jack Garcia cut his teeth

56:25

on this case. Okay, yeah, it's

56:27

a lot of everything he knows.

56:30

Love Jack, we love Jack. Yeah,

56:32

Jerry, you know who we're talking

56:34

about, Waukeen, Garcia. We had our

56:37

first undercover meeting at the Borgata

56:39

in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with

56:41

Jack, the week he was retiring.

56:44

He was headed to New York

56:46

office to turn in his badge

56:48

and gun the day after our

56:51

initial meeting. It went incredibly well.

56:53

We had... previously chatted about bringing

56:56

him back under consulting services agreement

56:58

to work the case post bureau

57:00

and we were able to get

57:03

it approved and Jack was the

57:05

main undercover. We deferred to he

57:07

and Mike McGowan who else they

57:10

wanted to include in the operation

57:12

and they made great recommendations. Jerry

57:14

Bermudez who's no longer with us

57:17

ended up being the number two

57:19

for Jack in the undercover operation

57:21

and Jerry was just phenomenal. handling

57:24

the day-to-day calls with Toledo and

57:26

setting up the operations. Jack was

57:28

kind of the big dog in

57:31

the operation, so he only showed

57:33

up when he had to show

57:35

up. Jerry was boots on the

57:38

ground running the illegal operation. Yeah,

57:40

when we first met Big Jack,

57:42

who I truly love, and Mike

57:45

and I became pretty close to

57:47

him, I still talked to him

57:49

on a regular basis. We met

57:52

him before our initial meet with

57:54

Pluto. was going to be in

57:56

Atlantic City and it really wasn't

57:59

a quote-unquote. and undercover meet where

58:01

there's be criminal activity. It really was,

58:03

okay, it's a meet and greet. It's

58:05

a time the CW

58:07

to introduce his cousin. from

58:10

Miami. you know, kind

58:12

of talk, you know, of a little introduction

58:14

and not really get into specifics or any

58:16

criminal activity. but just to of

58:18

meet. So again, that was

58:20

Big Jack's idea to let's have it

58:22

at the Bogota Hotel and

58:24

it couldn't worked any better. you

58:27

know, so Polito his trip down. And

58:29

I'm not sure if this trip, We

58:31

had a couple of meets in Bogota. One, he

58:33

took his wife, one he took his girlfriend, you

58:35

know, so I believe the first meet he took

58:37

his wife, you know, down to meet Jack and

58:39

they really didn't talk specifics. They just kind of

58:41

said, hey, Nice to meet you. We're going

58:44

to set something up down the line, maybe down in Miami.

58:46

Yeah, as Jack described it. It's

58:48

purely a bona fide meeting. Get to

58:50

know each other, get comfortable with each

58:52

other. Do not discuss

58:54

anything criminal. And Jack

58:57

was the master at his

58:59

appearance, his aura at

59:01

developing bona fides with criminal

59:03

subjects. and it

59:05

was incredible the time

59:07

he spent with Troy and Plato at

59:09

the Bogota in a conference room

59:11

that we set up, going to dinner,

59:13

a little anecdote of the story. They

59:16

were at, I believe, it

59:18

a Hempstead steakhouse in the Borgata.

59:20

and Jack called over the

59:22

my hair for a wine

59:24

recommendation and Pleo's wife Evelyn

59:26

asked for something in a white

59:28

simpadel and to sell my air. Couldn't

59:31

have his nose up any faster.

59:33

And We don't serve that

59:35

here. Oh, well, excuse me. I

59:40

don't drink it also. I would

59:42

have no idea of the importance

59:44

The comes in a box. Oh,

59:46

okay. Let me

59:48

just take a little quick break to

59:50

say that you've been, and I've been

59:52

very complimentary on our friend, Jack Garcia.

59:55

but he has been equally complimentary

59:57

on you too. As matter

59:59

of, fact, matter of fact, that's why I'm

1:00:01

doing this case review, because the last

1:00:03

time I talked to him, he said to

1:00:05

me. him, he know, you should

1:00:07

get to come on the show. get

1:00:09

And he said, show, and he Kevin. and Kevin. So

1:00:12

It sounds like it's a mutual love. love.

1:00:14

we, we had some good times.

1:00:16

Yeah, it's it's like, you know, I

1:00:18

I think you you talk to anybody

1:00:20

involved in this case, including if

1:00:22

if Jerry still alive. was still live,

1:00:25

who was too soon. too soon. We

1:00:27

We just had such an amazing team

1:00:29

from both the FBI, Boston Department, and I

1:00:31

think we end up using close to

1:00:33

up using close to 17 and this investigation.

1:00:35

this And I And I think there

1:00:37

wasn't a time that there was

1:00:39

ever a disagreement. This And this

1:00:41

relationship also fostered our relationship with

1:00:43

the U .S. in Massachusetts. Yeah, there might

1:00:45

have been some differences of opinions of

1:00:47

how we go forward on some stuff. on

1:00:50

some stuff, but no is no in this

1:00:52

investigation. And I think that's why

1:00:54

it worked. worked. know, we were there

1:00:56

for the common cause. find out find

1:00:58

out how systemic this corruption is,

1:01:00

but we had the most special

1:01:03

team. though it was a very was a

1:01:05

very difficult three years. also It was

1:01:07

also probably one of the most amazing three

1:01:09

years of my life. my life. Yeah, we We certainly

1:01:11

had some some but it was worth

1:01:13

enduring those three years. those three the

1:01:15

friendships that we built. built, the collaboration

1:01:17

we will do with other agents

1:01:20

and Boston Police anti-corruption.

1:01:22

I I mean, it's really highlighted my career.

1:01:24

Well, we're Well, we're not going to

1:01:26

be able to go through through all 17 undercover.

1:01:29

What's that that, man? we had 17 we had

1:01:31

17 between the drivers and everybody, I

1:01:33

would But I would like for you

1:01:35

to tell us a little bit

1:01:37

more about Jerry, because you said that

1:01:39

he did the majority of the interactions

1:01:41

with Polito and others. As Mike As

1:01:43

Mike mentioned, Jack was our main was

1:01:45

our main undercover. He was the person

1:01:47

person that was in charge of

1:01:49

this drug organization. organization, Miami. Miami.

1:01:51

up down the whole East coast. needed somebody

1:01:54

needed somebody to be his was person

1:01:56

moving to be moving up to

1:01:58

these and and probably establish this in the Boston. area

1:02:00

and he pointed us in the

1:02:02

direction as this individual by the

1:02:05

name of Jerry Demutis. We knew

1:02:07

nothing about him. All we knew

1:02:09

that he was a Miami drug

1:02:12

agent, worked on the drug task

1:02:14

force. Mike and I got a

1:02:16

chance to meet with him and

1:02:19

the same with Jack. It was

1:02:21

just this this comfort level that

1:02:23

you just can't explain. The way

1:02:25

he interacted with Mike and I,

1:02:28

it was just like we knew

1:02:30

him for years. You know, he

1:02:32

was listening, he listened to us,

1:02:35

we listened to him. And we

1:02:37

knew right away we had our

1:02:39

person. And Big Jack deserves so

1:02:42

much credit in this investigation, but

1:02:44

he'd be the first person to

1:02:46

say that it would not have

1:02:49

been the same. It wasn't for

1:02:51

Jeremy Mutis. He was just an

1:02:53

amazing FBI agent and an amazing

1:02:56

FBI undercover agent. So as we

1:02:58

mentioned, our first undercover meet with

1:03:00

Pluto and Big Jack with the

1:03:03

CW was at the Borgata Hotel.

1:03:05

And I believe that was in

1:03:07

February, early February of 2006. So

1:03:10

again, that's almost two years and

1:03:12

a few months from when the

1:03:14

investigation started. The next step was

1:03:17

there is going to be a

1:03:19

meeting with Toledo. Toledo is going

1:03:21

to be traveling down to Miami

1:03:24

to meet with Big Jack's team

1:03:26

to talk more specifics about the

1:03:28

protection detail. So that took a

1:03:31

couple weeks for us to set

1:03:33

up, but Toledo himself traveled down

1:03:35

to the Miami area. to meet

1:03:38

with Jerry and another undercover FBI

1:03:40

employee and their undercover girlfriends on

1:03:42

a boat in the Miami. It

1:03:45

might have been a hot and

1:03:47

FBI asset down in the Miami

1:03:49

four lateral area to discuss the

1:03:52

criminal activity more specifics. Yeah, and

1:03:54

let's talk about that because I

1:03:56

might have missed it, but they're

1:03:59

offering him protection for what? Are

1:04:01

we talking about an expansion of

1:04:03

his drug activities? Big Jack was

1:04:06

offering Pluto to provide protection for...

1:04:08

Big Jack drug activity up the

1:04:10

East Coast, specifically in the Boston

1:04:13

area. A new distribution location. A

1:04:15

new distribution location. They were asking

1:04:17

Palito and his group to protect

1:04:20

them when they came into Boston

1:04:22

with their drugs. That's correct. Law

1:04:24

enforcement-friendly protecting the drug transactions. Got

1:04:27

it. Yeah, Big Jack had already

1:04:29

told Plato that he had officers,

1:04:31

police officers in the Miami- Orlando

1:04:34

area. providing protection for the drug

1:04:36

organization in that area. And he

1:04:38

was looking to expand up the

1:04:41

East Coast into the Massachusetts area,

1:04:43

Boston area, and he needed the

1:04:45

same type of protection. So Frank,

1:04:48

I'll let you pop in here

1:04:50

again. I mean, we've gone from

1:04:52

somebody who was using law enforcement

1:04:55

databases to facilitate identity fraud. Now

1:04:57

you're having somebody who is agreeing

1:04:59

to protect. a criminal drug enterprise.

1:05:01

So it has definitely gone up

1:05:04

a whole other level. Absolutely. And

1:05:06

this obviously is perhaps one of

1:05:08

the greatest betrayals of the badge

1:05:11

that any police officer can do.

1:05:13

Essentially, in political's mind, in Carrisquillo's

1:05:15

mind, and in Pizarro's mind, they

1:05:18

were a part of a very

1:05:20

large multi-state or international drug distribution

1:05:22

network. As a matter of fact,

1:05:25

Toledo, when he was down on

1:05:27

the ad, with Garcia and the

1:05:29

other agents, the video that was,

1:05:32

that I later saw, you could

1:05:34

tell that Toledo was almost, almost

1:05:36

proud of his relationship with these

1:05:39

major drug dealers. And it's almost

1:05:41

like he wanted to be another

1:05:43

Tony Montan and Scarface. He wanted

1:05:46

this as a major goal in

1:05:48

his life. And one of the

1:05:50

recordings that I listened to. where

1:05:53

the CW was having one of

1:05:55

his many conversations with Toledo, the

1:05:57

CW of course. killed Troy

1:06:00

was incredibly talented. in

1:06:02

and getting Pulido to talk about himself.

1:06:04

Pulido once made the statement that

1:06:07

when he told his told his father that

1:06:09

he was going to become a police officer. officer

1:06:11

that according to and I'll never forget this,

1:06:13

he said, my father told me. father

1:06:15

that if you're going to be a you're keep

1:06:18

one foot in crime and one foot in policing.

1:06:20

one foot in and that's what Polito was.

1:06:22

He was essentially a criminal. a

1:06:24

criminal to get himself

1:06:26

a badge in his law enforcement

1:06:28

career. career. was essentially in his his

1:06:30

mind. It existed to

1:06:32

further his criminal activities.

1:06:34

was more was more proud.

1:06:36

drug deal and importing a drug

1:06:38

into importing heroin into Boston that

1:06:40

he and that a police officer and

1:06:42

that was very evident to me. Jerry

1:06:45

to Yeah, when they expand a kind of

1:06:47

expand a little bit on that meet, you know,

1:06:49

in you know in Miami as I it

1:06:51

was a control meeting meeting with both being audio

1:06:53

and video tape, us not for us to

1:06:55

see, but we're able to look at it

1:06:57

afterwards. That was the first

1:06:59

time where we had two undercovers, Jerry being

1:07:01

one of them, you know, You know, ask

1:07:04

Toledo if you'd be interested in

1:07:06

providing. providing Protection of contraband coming

1:07:08

into the Boston area and

1:07:10

contraband meaning cocaine and drugs Toledo

1:07:13

at that time yeah, we could we could

1:07:15

use my garage, which was located at

1:07:17

Street. Washington described how

1:07:20

it also be that it would be difficult for

1:07:22

law enforcement to surveil it because it

1:07:24

was kind of offset. of offset. It It was

1:07:26

later decided not to use that garage,

1:07:28

but to use another garage that Polito

1:07:30

was was owner of or part renter of.

1:07:32

but it's You know, but it's also during

1:07:34

this meeting Toledo said said I can do I can

1:07:36

do it. I could monitor

1:07:38

radios and alert were any

1:07:41

Boston And coming nearby. this meeting is He

1:07:43

also, during this meeting, was when he got

1:07:45

a call of the was also part of the

1:07:47

wire tap that we were listening to, he said

1:07:49

he said that he got a call from

1:07:51

and then he and then he told the undercovers

1:07:53

that this is Carrasquillo, and he mentioned to

1:07:55

the undercovers also also Carrasquillo is a hustler just

1:07:57

like me. like me. So that's twice. Now

1:08:00

we know that Karasquio is somebody

1:08:02

that Pledo trusts. And I think

1:08:04

it was at this meeting where

1:08:06

you see Told Pledo that if

1:08:08

the deal goes bad, the only

1:08:10

way they'd be caught is Pledo

1:08:12

identified him. And Pledo told him

1:08:14

that wouldn't happen. And he also

1:08:16

agreed to escort the shipment into

1:08:18

the garage and the customers who

1:08:20

were also undercover agents into the

1:08:22

garage and then get him back

1:08:24

to the highway. Even worse, as

1:08:26

I recall, Bledo, I think it

1:08:28

was on tape or on wire

1:08:31

made the statement. that if necessary,

1:08:33

we should be prepared to even

1:08:35

kill somebody. And correct me if

1:08:37

I'm wrong, the Mike and Kevin.

1:08:39

Yeah, and then Jerry said, well,

1:08:41

we don't want to do that.

1:08:43

But yeah, I do recall that.

1:08:45

It gives you an insight into

1:08:47

his mentality and that he was

1:08:49

willing to murder somebody in order

1:08:51

to further importation of cocaine to

1:08:53

Boston as a police officer. I

1:08:55

mean, this was, this was crazy.

1:08:57

It was very shocking in learning

1:08:59

about this as the case preceded.

1:09:01

What level has been. had to

1:09:03

send it to. And the other

1:09:05

two individuals, Karasquio and Pizzaro, were

1:09:08

fine with it. There was no

1:09:10

morality associated with their actions at

1:09:12

all. Once he got comfortable with

1:09:14

Jack and Jerry, he was all

1:09:16

in 100% in. Yeah, I would

1:09:18

say as soon as he came

1:09:20

out of that meeting in a

1:09:22

Fort Lauderdale area, with that meeting

1:09:24

with Jerry and the other undercover

1:09:26

employee, he was totally in, and

1:09:28

he was not looking back. Why

1:09:30

Boston? I know the answer to

1:09:32

the question because I'm reading the

1:09:34

summary, but I think it's important.

1:09:36

We've kind of skipped that. Well,

1:09:38

as we mentioned before, Plato's role

1:09:40

was that the drug organization that

1:09:43

was, Big Jack, was in charge

1:09:45

of Don and the Miami for

1:09:47

a lot of their, they were

1:09:49

looking to expand up the East

1:09:51

Coast and into the Boston, Massachusetts

1:09:53

area. And they needed the same

1:09:55

protection that they had in the

1:09:57

Miami, Fort Lauderdale area, and the

1:09:59

Boston, Massachusetts area. And they needed

1:10:01

Plato and his. team to provide

1:10:03

that protection. Now in the summary

1:10:05

it says that they were going

1:10:07

to be expanding to Canada. So

1:10:09

that's what I was referring to.

1:10:11

That was all part of the

1:10:13

undercover speak. That's what we represented

1:10:15

to Pluto through the undercover. Plato

1:10:17

could not afford the same protection

1:10:20

and customer service to the undercovers,

1:10:22

to the drug deals that he

1:10:24

could in New York or Connecticut.

1:10:26

Boston and the state of Massachusetts,

1:10:28

he had a much wider birth

1:10:30

with what he could do. as

1:10:32

a so-called protector of a drug

1:10:34

transaction. What do you mean? He

1:10:36

had the radios. Once the undercover

1:10:38

operation was set up for Boston,

1:10:40

he has citywide jurisdiction. He has

1:10:42

Boston Police radio. He knows hundreds

1:10:44

of officers in the department. His

1:10:46

ability to influence an impact the

1:10:48

so-called drug trafficking operation in terms

1:10:50

of protection was so much more

1:10:52

impactful in the Boston area than

1:10:54

it would have been in Hartford,

1:10:57

Connecticut. his accesses were that much

1:10:59

greater. He also had the locations

1:11:01

where the drugs were being stored

1:11:03

or dropped off. As Mike and

1:11:05

Kevin stated, he had leased garage

1:11:07

space and so forth. So obviously

1:11:09

he could protect those locations with

1:11:11

security alarms and so forth. And

1:11:13

knowing police officers in the district

1:11:15

you work in and you have

1:11:17

businesses and any police officer that

1:11:19

comes snooping around is going to

1:11:21

be... more or less dissuaded from

1:11:23

doing so if the property belongs

1:11:25

to a cop that you either

1:11:27

work with or no. So there

1:11:29

was that level of assurance that

1:11:31

he could provide. So these two

1:11:34

undercover agents, you know, working as

1:11:36

major drug dealers, were almost, it

1:11:38

sounds kind of funny because you're

1:11:40

looking at, you know, they could

1:11:42

have gone anywhere, but they're going

1:11:44

to go to Boston because there's

1:11:46

polito there to assist them with

1:11:48

what they're doing. That's correct. All

1:11:50

right. And we built the scenario

1:11:52

for that reason. Very good. What

1:11:54

happens next? They've met in Miami.

1:11:56

Polito has agreed to provide. So

1:11:58

when's the first the

1:12:00

first shipment coming

1:12:02

in? Yeah, they met Miami. It

1:12:05

They met Miami. at was discussed

1:12:07

at the Miami. agreed that

1:12:09

he would agreed that he would provide protection

1:12:11

for this drug. drug in

1:12:13

the Boston area. Boston they agreed

1:12:15

on that. they a fee of a

1:12:17

fee of $500 per kilo of cocaine.

1:12:19

that Pluto would receive. The

1:12:22

The next step was going

1:12:24

to travel travel to Boston. to

1:12:26

meet with Pledo to show him

1:12:28

places where they could do

1:12:30

the drug the drug between

1:12:32

the undercover drug

1:12:34

organization. organization and the undercover

1:12:37

drug buyers. So of March, March

1:12:39

March 30th, met with with Jerry and showed

1:12:41

him the two locations where they

1:12:43

could have the the detail take place.

1:12:46

take place and Pledo and that they

1:12:48

would hold it they would his

1:12:50

garage his garage in Washington

1:12:52

Street and Jamaica plant. The scenario

1:12:54

we came up with for

1:12:56

the first drug transaction is a van

1:12:58

was was going to come up

1:13:00

from Miami. undercover van

1:13:03

with undercover driver carrying

1:13:05

the drugs. drugs, undercover customers

1:13:07

who were undercover agents,

1:13:09

agents, from Canada. Canada, come

1:13:11

to Boston, meet the the van, transact

1:13:13

the drugs, and when I'm head

1:13:15

back to Canada, to the ban

1:13:17

would take off. would take off. So debated

1:13:20

whether to use dummy cocaine or

1:13:22

real cocaine, the U .S.

1:13:24

Attorney's Office felt it it was

1:13:26

better to use real cocaine.

1:13:28

and I had the Kevin and I

1:13:30

had the pleasure of checking of

1:13:32

kilos of cocaine out of

1:13:34

the evidence room, wrapped in duct

1:13:36

tape that These undercover These undercover

1:13:39

operations but great. think the I

1:13:41

don't think. of the the majority of

1:13:43

the public how high how are. they

1:13:45

are. real were real drugs that

1:13:47

Kevin and I to sign out

1:13:49

of evidence and then chain of custody

1:13:52

agents on our squad to

1:13:54

bring to the undercover agent driving

1:13:56

the the van. The The band shows

1:13:58

up Plato's garage, the undercover. Bikers come

1:14:00

in, get the cocaine, rendezvous backup

1:14:02

with agents from our squad, the

1:14:04

cocaine goes back to the evidence

1:14:07

room. That's just to get the

1:14:09

drugs in and out of the

1:14:11

garage. At any point in time,

1:14:13

you're dealing with a street value

1:14:15

40 kilos. I think at the

1:14:17

time, it might have been $25,000

1:14:19

a kilo, so that's a significant

1:14:21

value of my products that you

1:14:23

have on the street for a

1:14:25

day or a half a day.

1:14:28

So we set up the transaction

1:14:30

for the garage. The band, which

1:14:32

was an undercover vehicle, was equipped

1:14:34

with hides. It looked the part

1:14:36

of a drug courier van, came

1:14:38

up. Toledo and Karaskeo were at

1:14:40

the garage, brought the band into

1:14:42

the garage. I believe Kevin Wright,

1:14:44

Toledo went and met the bikers

1:14:46

somewhere. Yeah, Plea escorted them in.

1:14:49

Escorted them into the garage. Jerry

1:14:51

was at the garage the whole

1:14:53

time. and the transaction occurred, the

1:14:55

undercover ban leaves, the undercover bikers

1:14:57

leave. But during the transaction, Jerry

1:14:59

asked Plito if he wanted to

1:15:01

see the van, and the excitement

1:15:03

and the audio and video recording

1:15:05

of Plito climbing in the van,

1:15:07

seeing how the hides operate, he

1:15:10

was getting. It was again, one

1:15:12

of those startling moments where you

1:15:14

realize that it's a police officer,

1:15:16

but it's almost unbelievable how he's

1:15:18

reacting. to what he's involved in.

1:15:20

Know who else is Giddy? Prosecutors.

1:15:22

Well, got you. I'm with the

1:15:24

chair. Yeah, because I mean, everybody

1:15:26

was getting because they're watching him

1:15:28

and thinking there is no better

1:15:31

evidence that he knew exactly what

1:15:33

he was doing than him being

1:15:35

excited to be in a van

1:15:37

full of cocaine and hides and,

1:15:39

you know, when I say the

1:15:41

case agents, Kevin and Mike. We

1:15:43

were excited to get the cocaine

1:15:45

back into the evidence room as

1:15:47

quickly as we could. So it

1:15:49

was off our name. Yeah. I

1:15:52

think a good description of what

1:15:54

Pluto's role was, not only was

1:15:56

he part of this criminal activity,

1:15:58

but he was also the director

1:16:00

of everything on this day and

1:16:02

everything that transpired even the next

1:16:04

couple of months going forward. So

1:16:06

him and Jerry were at Toledo's

1:16:08

garage. Once the van was getting

1:16:11

close, Cleo went and escorted the

1:16:13

van from a mile away at

1:16:15

a McDonald's. He then went and

1:16:17

met the undercover bikers from Canada

1:16:19

at another location. Talk about that

1:16:21

a little bit. I want to

1:16:23

make sure everybody's clear who these

1:16:25

undercover bikers are. They might have

1:16:27

a tattoo or two. Again, we

1:16:29

had recorded to Pluto that the

1:16:32

buyers at ease drugs were from

1:16:34

a biker gang in the Quebec

1:16:36

area in Canada. You know, so

1:16:38

again, we relied on Jack and

1:16:40

Jerry and Mike McGowan to try

1:16:42

to find undercover employees that looked

1:16:44

like bikers and Did we have

1:16:46

undercovers that look like bikers? We

1:16:48

sure did. We had two undercover

1:16:50

employees that were long hair, all

1:16:53

tatted up, all their arms. You

1:16:55

know, the first time I met

1:16:57

them, I would never have guessed

1:16:59

that they were FBI agents. And

1:17:01

I was at that time, I

1:17:03

was an FBI employee for 11,

1:17:05

12 years. Yeah. It's funny. You

1:17:07

meet them the day or two

1:17:09

before for coffee just to get

1:17:11

to know them. And you know,

1:17:14

I know I'm thinking, God, I

1:17:16

hope one of my neighbors doesn't

1:17:18

walk into this. Because they're going

1:17:20

to have no idea what the

1:17:22

hell is going on with Kevin

1:17:24

and I sitting down with guys

1:17:26

tatted head to toe That's so

1:17:28

cool. So the way we have

1:17:30

the undercover operation structured is Plato

1:17:32

was offered and agreed to $500

1:17:35

per kilo of protection. So 40

1:17:37

kilos of cocaine $500, $20,000. So

1:17:39

we pay them 25% the day

1:17:41

of the transaction in his garage

1:17:43

and then we brought him down

1:17:45

to the Borgata to meet with

1:17:47

Jack and Jerry again and paid

1:17:49

the remaining $75 or $15,000. Perfect.

1:17:51

So that's the point. where

1:17:53

we know Keraskiyo

1:17:56

participated in the

1:17:58

the protection. did not.

1:18:00

Leo actually enlisted

1:18:02

a buddy of

1:18:04

his as the

1:18:06

third person that

1:18:08

day. his as the third person

1:18:11

that we So again, we know a partner

1:18:13

in crime with Polito. We just

1:18:15

don't have access to him. don't

1:18:17

have to the drawing board. to

1:18:19

the All right. board. All don't

1:18:21

we stop the case review

1:18:23

at this point and then

1:18:25

we will be back next

1:18:27

week week for part two. the continuation

1:18:30

of this case. of this

1:18:32

case. And that's the that's

1:18:34

the end of this of

1:18:36

this two -part episode. I'll

1:18:38

post part two In week.

1:18:40

In your apps description of

1:18:42

this episode, you'll find a

1:18:44

link to the show

1:18:46

notes at notes at.com where you'll

1:18:48

find photos of Kevin,

1:18:50

Mike, and Frank Mike, a

1:18:52

little longer bios for them.

1:18:54

You'll also find news

1:18:56

articles about this Boston this Boston

1:18:58

case and related images.

1:19:00

There are also links to

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very end. I hope you come

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1:20:34

Williams. Thank you. you.