CORRUPT BPD OFFICER SENTENCED TO 13 YEARS

Received Thursday, December 13, 2007 via email: 

Boston, MA... The first of three veteran Boston Police officers, convicted of conspiring to sell 100 kilograms of cocaine last July, was sentenced today to 13 years in federal prison.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New England Field Division and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, announced today that CARLOS PIZARRO, 37, formerly of 8 Lenoxdale Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, was sentenced today to 13 years incarceration and 5 years of supervised release for conspiring to protect 100 kilograms of cocaine.

“The sentence imposed today reflects an important consensus that corrupt police are among society’s worst offenders,” said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. “They corrode the public’s faith in our system of justice; they create mistrust in the communities they were sworn to serve, and they tarnish the badge so many good officers wear proudly.”

During a plea hearing held on September 10, 2007, PIZARRO admitted to conspiring with fellow officers Roberto Pulido and Nelson Carrasquillo to protect the transport and sale of 100 kilograms of cocaine between May and June 2006. On June 8, 2006, PIZARRO and the other two officers guided a truck which they believed to be carrying the cocaine, with an estimated wholesale value of more than $2 million, from western Massachusetts to a commercial garage operated by Pulido on Washington Street in Boston. PIZARRO then surveilled the perimeter of the area while a second truck came to the garage to pick up the cocaine. PIZARRO then guided one of the trucks out of Boston. Unbeknownst to the three corrupt officers, the sellers and buyers of the cocaine were undercover federal agents who had the officers under investigation for months.

On July 19, 2006, PIZARRO traveled to Miami to meet with the men whom he believed to be major cocaine dealers. At a meeting on July 20, 2006, PIZARRO and his two coconspirators were paid $36,000 – the balance due on a total payment of $51,000 – for their assistance in guiding and protecting the cocaine. While in Miami, PIZARRO and the others agreed to protect an additional 1000 kilograms of cocaine and 5 kilograms of heroin. The payment for those future loads was to be $515,000. The officers were arrested in Miami by federal agents a short time after taking the $36,000 payment.

PIZARRO was detained in Miami after his arrest, transported in custody to Boston, and briefly released when he returned by Boston. PIZARRO was ordered detained a second time after telephone monitoring revealed that he was attempting to conceal evidence stored in his home. PIZARRO was terminated from the Boston Police Department after his arrest and indictment in this case, and has remained in custody pending sentencing. PIZARRO had been a Boston Police officer since 1996, most recently serving as a patrol officer in Area D-4 (South End).

PIZARRO ’s co-defendants, Roberto Pulido and Nelson Carrasquillo, pleaded guilty to related charges in November 2007; both of those men had greater involvement in the conspiracy than PIZARRO. Carrasquillo pleaded guilty on November 5 – the first day of his trial. Pulido pleaded guilty on November 8 - the forth day of his trial. Carrasquillo will be sentenced on February 5, 2008 and Pulido will be sentenced on February 6, 2008.

A fourth BPD officer, Edgardo Rodriguez, pleaded guilty on November 19, 2007, to conspiring with Pulido to distribute steroids as well as committing perjury and obstructing justice before the federal grand jury investigating police corruption. Rodriguez will be sentenced on February 12, 2008, before Judge Zobel.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New England Field Division in cooperation with the Boston Police Department’s Anti-Corruption Squad. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. McNeil and George Vien in Sullivan’s Public Corruption Unit.

(Received from CHRISTINA DiIORIO-STERLING, Department of Justice, The United States Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts:  For Immediate Release)