A former NYPD detective, seemingly unsatisfied with his city salary, was arrested this week after investigators say he and a group of cohorts allegedly stole over $10 million in cash and property from Long Island residents over a three-year-period.
Prosecutors say NYPD detective Rafael Astacio, 41, teamed up with defendants Victor Arias, Michael Figueroa, Nikitas Margiellos and Leonard Ripka to embark upon a series of heists from 2009 to 2012, breaking into homes and commercial establishments to steal goods and cash. They are also accused of transporting 45,000 stolen pairs of Under Armour, Hobie, and other sunglasses, worth about $3 million, across state lines and selling hot goods on the Internet.
Astacio and the five other defendants were charged at at the United States Courthouse in Central Islip today; in addition the burglary charges, prosecutors say Astacio also unlawfully accessed a database maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "As charged, Astacio not only turned his back on the community he promised to protect, he also betrayed his fellow law enforcement officers for a chance to line his pockets with his victims' hard-earned money," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos said in a statement today.
The group is also accused of stealing $2 million in cash from a Nassau County plastic surgeon's office, and prosecutors believe they've committed as many as three dozen commercial burglaries and ten residential burglaries. Astacio faces a maximum 17 year prison sentence if convicted, and Figueroa, Arias, Margiellos and Ripka each face 15-year-imprisonment maximums if convicted.
