Bay Ridge police officer cops to gun smuggling charges
A disgraced Bay Ridge police officer accused of smuggling more than $1 million in guns and stolen goods across state lines has copped to his crimes — federal charges that could leave him rotting in jail for the next 10 years.
Eddie Goris, a 68th Precinct officer who was arrested with seven other active duty and retired cops last year, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in Manhattan federal court on March 1, ensuring that he will lose his job, as well as pay a $30,000 fine when he returns to court for sentencing, federal prosecutors said.
But it remains unclear just how long he will stay in jail: Goris is facing a decade behind bars when he’s sentenced on June 4, but will most likely be given four years since he’s pleaded guilty, prosecutors explained.
Goris’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.
The feds arrested Goris and his cohorts last October following a two-year investigation.
Federal investigators say the gang of bootleggers — which included four other 68th Precinct cops, including two highly regarded community affairs officers, an officer from the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights and a member of Brooklyn South Task Force — transported stolen cigarettes, slot machines and firearms, including M-16 rifles, 16 hand guns and a shotgun.
Goris and two accomplices also traveled to Virginia to swipe more than $500,000 worth of cigarettes from two trucks in May, 2011, prosecutors alleged.
The crew was nabbed after the feds set up a sting operation where the crooked cops agreed to pick up a cache of firearms — all of which had been rendered inoperable by the FBI — in New Jersey and transport them back to New York.
“An officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer, as well as every member of the public,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The gang’s ringleader, 68th Precinct Officer William Masso, was facing 20 years in prison but agreed to a plea deal ensuring that he will only see six years behind bars.
Masso — the cousin of Genovese crime-family capo Alphonse “Allie Shades” Malangone — was caught on tape boasting to an undercover agent that his NYPD friends could provide protection for anyone smuggling stolen goods into New York.
“Whatever he wants we can get — [even] one guy seven-foot tall, with muscles out to here,” Masso told the undercover operative in one recording. “You want a guy who beat the [heck] out of somebody who bothers him, we got that. We got cops with vests and guns.”
Goris was the seventh member of the gun-smuggling crew to plead guilty, according to published reports.
http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2012/10/br_copguilty_2012_03_09_bk.html
Eddie Goris, a 68th Precinct officer who was arrested with seven other active duty and retired cops last year, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in Manhattan federal court on March 1, ensuring that he will lose his job, as well as pay a $30,000 fine when he returns to court for sentencing, federal prosecutors said.
But it remains unclear just how long he will stay in jail: Goris is facing a decade behind bars when he’s sentenced on June 4, but will most likely be given four years since he’s pleaded guilty, prosecutors explained.
Goris’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.
The feds arrested Goris and his cohorts last October following a two-year investigation.
Federal investigators say the gang of bootleggers — which included four other 68th Precinct cops, including two highly regarded community affairs officers, an officer from the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights and a member of Brooklyn South Task Force — transported stolen cigarettes, slot machines and firearms, including M-16 rifles, 16 hand guns and a shotgun.
Goris and two accomplices also traveled to Virginia to swipe more than $500,000 worth of cigarettes from two trucks in May, 2011, prosecutors alleged.
The crew was nabbed after the feds set up a sting operation where the crooked cops agreed to pick up a cache of firearms — all of which had been rendered inoperable by the FBI — in New Jersey and transport them back to New York.
“An officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer, as well as every member of the public,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The gang’s ringleader, 68th Precinct Officer William Masso, was facing 20 years in prison but agreed to a plea deal ensuring that he will only see six years behind bars.
Masso — the cousin of Genovese crime-family capo Alphonse “Allie Shades” Malangone — was caught on tape boasting to an undercover agent that his NYPD friends could provide protection for anyone smuggling stolen goods into New York.
“Whatever he wants we can get — [even] one guy seven-foot tall, with muscles out to here,” Masso told the undercover operative in one recording. “You want a guy who beat the [heck] out of somebody who bothers him, we got that. We got cops with vests and guns.”
Goris was the seventh member of the gun-smuggling crew to plead guilty, according to published reports.
http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories/2012/10/br_copguilty_2012_03_09_bk.html
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