NYPD officer part of international drug ring, federal prosecutors say

A New York City police officer from Hauppauge and four other men were arrested Monday on charges they were part of an international drug trafficking ring which imported cocaine into the New York City metropolitan area over a nearly a five-year period, officials said.

Officer Amaury Abreu, 34, faces charges that he played a key role with the other defendants in a ring which imported multi-kilograms of cocaine in the United States through a variety of methods, including airline passengers, the mail and in trucks which entered the country through Mexico.

Officials didn’t have a precise estimate of how much cocaine was shipped during the period from January 2016 through October 2020 but said that shipments totaling nearly 800 pounds had been seized over those years by authorities.

Abreu, who investigators alleged acted as a kind of fifth-columnist helping the drug ring by providing them with police information about arrests warrants and upcoming raids, was immediately suspended without pay after his arrest, NYPD officials said.

He had been an officer for nine years, the department noted. A law enforcement official who didn’t want to be named said Abreu had previously worked in the NYPD’s homeless outreach unit before being assigned to his current post at the 113 Precinct in Queens.

"By joining forces with his co-conspirators, Abreu has allegedly committed serious crimes, disgraced his NYPD badge and betrayed the public trust as well as fellow members of law enforcement who put their lives on the line to interdict drugs that endanger our communities, acting U.S. Eastern District of New York Attorney Seth D. DuCharme said in a statement.

Also arrested and indicted in the case along with Abreu where Julio Bautista, 35, of Roosevelt, and Gustavo Valerio, 38, of South Ozone Park, Queens. They face charges along with Abreu for conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, according to officials. A fourth defendant, Cesar Diaz-Bautista, 43, of Roosevelt, was charged in a criminal complaint with possession with intent to distribute cocaine while a fifth defendant, Junior Ortiz, 29, of Uniondale was accused in a complaint with cocaine importation conspiracy, authorities said.

At an arraignment before Brooklyn federal magistrate-judge Sanket J. Bulsara, Abreu pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a $1 million bond with home detention as a condition, a spokesman for DuCharme said. Junior Ortiz and Cesar Daz-Bautista were both released on $100,000 and $200,000 bonds respectively, the spokesman added. Arraignments for Julio Bautista and Gustavo Valerio were pending late Monday.

Prosecutors were seeking to detain Abreu and the others and filed a memo with the court in which they alleged that the officer had messaged the drug ring’s leaders with information from police files and computer system.

In January 2016, Abreu told the drug gang leadership in substance that "Today, I’m going to find out the thing I couldn’t yesterday because there were too many people at the office," the memo stated.

In March 2016, Abreu received a message from the drug gang leaders containing a request to check to see if Valerio had any information and a day later he reported back that a warrant check on Valerio was clear, the memo stated.

Prosecutors also alleged that while Abreu seemed to not be actively involved in handling drugs that he did distribute cocaine on at least one occasion.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.