By Steve Neavling
Federal prosecutors are broadening a bribery investigation involving veteran DEA agents, shifting their focus to two Miami defense attorneys accused of making money off of leaks of confidential DEA information.
In court papers filed Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan alleges the two lawyers profited from the secret information, ABC News reports.
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge for permission to review nearly 1,000 emails, text messages and recordings of protected conversations between the attorneys and Manny Recio, a former DEA agent who later worked for the attorneys as a private investigator.
While communication between attorneys and their clients are typically off limits to law enforcement, federal prosecutors are invoking the “crime fraud exception,” claiming the communication between Recio and attorneys David Macey and Luis Guerra are “integral to the bribery scheme.”
Recio and Agent John Constanzo Jr., who had been on leave, were found guilty of multiple charges following a 12-day trial in November.
The men were convicted of conspiracy to bribe a public official, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and honest services wire fraud.
Constanzo, who was a group supervisor in the agency’s Miami Field Office until 2019, was accused of leaking internal agency secrets to Recio in exchange for bribes.
After Recio retired as the assistant special agent in charge of the Miami Field Office in November 2018, he launched a private investigative business to help criminal defense attorneys.
The men agreed to a scheme in which Recio funneled cash to Constanzo for information about nonpublic investigations, such as the identities of individuals charged and the expected timing of indictments and arrests, as well as intelligence obtained from the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System (NADDIS).
Recio used the information to recruit new clients for criminal defense attorneys.
Prosecutors said Constanzo accepted about $73,000 in cash from Recio.
