Former NYPD Officer Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Meth, Date Rape Drug: DOJ

New York police cars are seen in New York City on Jan. 14, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A former New York City Police Department (NYPD) police officer has pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking methamphetamine and date rape drugs.

John Cicero, 39, from Bronxville, on Wednesday, admitted to distributing large quantities of methamphetamine and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) in Westchester County and New York City, the Department of Justice announced.

The former police officer served with the NYPD for two years between 2008 and 2010. He resigned after pleading guilty to the assault of a man on Jan. 5, 2010, and was punished with 400 hours of community service, although prosecutors had asked for a 60-day jail sentence.

“As he admitted today, over several years, Cicero was a leader of a drug trafficking ring, and he was personally responsible for moving over three kilograms [6.6 lbs] of methamphetamine and 750 liters [198 gallons] of GBL, and importing narcotics from overseas,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement, noting that Cicero was “once sworn to protect the public.”

According to court documents, beginning in at least 2017 and lasting until his arrest in February last year, Cicero and his co-conspirators stockpiled and sold liters of GBL and kilograms of methamphetamine in apartments, hotel rooms, and storage units in the heart of midtown Manhattan, and a residence in Bronxville, New York.

On multiple occasions, Cicero brokered large-scale narcotics transactions over recorded prison calls with an inmate who was in New York State custody at the time, court papers state. GBL sent from China to Cicero’s address in New York was also seized in 2017 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, prosecutors wrote.

Cicero as part of his guilty plea has stipulated that he was an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor in the criminal activity. He faces a prison sentence of up to 40 years if convicted.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 10, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas.

“As a former police officer, sworn to protect others, Mr. Cicero has seen firsthand the harm these drugs do to our society which makes the charges announced today even more egregious,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement at the time of Cicero’s arrest last February.

“He now faces the same grim reality criminals he once locked up did—a long prison sentence, this time in a federal jail cell.”

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman added at the time: “Methamphetamine devastates communities and GBL spreads danger all over the Southern District of New York, which is why the defendants face serious federal charges.”