A former New York police officer has pleaded guilty to charges she tipped off her gangster boyfriend that authorities were after him in a coldblooded murder of a rival.
Gina Mestre, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact to murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison when she is set to be sentenced on March 21. The case involved a federal investigation into the Shooting Boys gang and a murder committed by the gang’s leader, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release .
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“As she has now admitted, Gina Mestre, a former NYPD Officer, abused her position of public trust and betrayed the oath she took to protect and serve the citizens of New York City by helping a gang member evade capture for a murder of a rival gang member that he committed in broad daylight,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “When law enforcement officers break the laws they are sworn to uphold, they do a disservice to their fellow officers, to the departments that employ them, and to the public they serve. My office will work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to uncover and prosecute such corruption.”
Ex-NYPD cop Gina Mestre, left, is accused in a federal gang racketeering case after authorities said she helped her boyfriend flee an arrest in the murder of a rival and was one of several officers who identified him as the perpetrator in a surveillance video. (Mestre photo from NYPD; surveillance video from U.S. the Attroney’s Office)
Her defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime.
As Law&Crime reported , Mestre, who had been on the force for nine years, was arrested in August.
It began in the summer of 2020 when NYPD’s 52nd Precinct started to focus on cutting gun violence, much of it attributed to members of the Shooting Boys. Authorities pegged the gang to drugs, guns, and violence against rivals in the area dating to at least 2017.
Mestre was one of the cops assigned to the unit charged with that task. In June 2020, through secret social media accounts and phone numbers, she began communicating with the gang’s leader, Andrew “Caballo” Done, with whom she had an intimate relationship, authorities said.
Mestre provided Done and other gang members with confidential nonpublic law enforcement information about the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys, prosecutors said.
Mestre warned Done and other gang members that federal investigators were preparing to bring a federal indictment against the Shooting Boys. Mestre also warned Done about impending law enforcement operations, enabling Done and other gang members to conceal their criminal activity, officials said.
Mestre disclosed the identity of a witness cooperating with law enforcement and providing information about the gang, which allowed Done and other Shooting Boys to assault and intimidate the witness to prevent the witness from further cooperation, authorities said.
On Nov. 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival gang member as he sat in his car on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx.
NYPD detectives investigating the murder recovered security camera video capturing Done’s commission of the murder.
Several members of the 52nd Precinct were called upon to assist in identifying the person captured on the video. Mestre was one of several officers who identified Done as the perpetrator.
