Disgraced ex-NYPD cop charged with informing New York street gangs about state investigation
An NYPD cop tipped off her Bronx gangbang friend about a state investigation — she even revealed the name of a key witness and helped him avoid murder suspicion, according to an indictment released Wednesday.
Gina Mestre, 33, who was with the department until last year, “shamelessly” leaked confidential information to the Shooting Boys gang after she struck up “an intimate relationship” with the group’s leader, Manhattan federal prosecutors have claimed .
The disgraced officer even gave her alleged boyfriend Andrew “Caballo” Done a tip about a police manhunt for him following the September 2020 shooting of a rival gang member, the four-count indictment said.
“Gina Mestre shamelessly used her public trust to help gang members in her own NYPD turf who were terrorizing the Bronx through robberies, murders, drug trafficking and other acts of violence,” said US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“The indictment released today alleges that the defendant abused her position as an NYPD police officer, including by obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the gang and helping the gang’s leader escape arrest for a cold-blooded crime.” to avoid murder committed in broad daylight,” Williams said.
Mestre, from Mohegan Lake in Westchester County, joined New York’s Finest in 2013 and was assigned to the Bronx’s 52nd Precinct Public Safety Division.
According to public records, she had had a varied professional career. Almost three dozen complaints were filed against her, most of them alleging abuse of authority – five of which were later substantiated.
According to the filings, Mestre has also been named in at least 12 lawsuits, which have resulted in settlements totaling $765,000 so far.
In 2019, the suspected corrupt cop was linked to Done and the “Shooting Boys” — even as the crew sold fentanyl, crack and other drugs, committed armed robberies and assaulted rivals, the indictment says.
The gang had been terrorizing the University Heights neighborhood since at least 2017.
Prosecutors allege that Mestre began telling the gang about a federal grand jury investigation into their activities around June 2020 — even giving them the name of a witness in the case who was later assaulted by the gang in an attempt to intimidate them became.
On November 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival mobster on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx. Police secured surveillance video of the shooting and launched a manhunt – according to the indictment, Mestre was one of the officers in the case.
Allegedly, Mestre Done sent the surveillance video and gave him details of the attempts to apprehend him.
Last year, federal prosecutors quashed a 15-count indictment against 10 members of the Shooting Boys, including Done, who was charged with the 2020 murder. He pleaded guilty on November 17, 2022.
Mestre, who by then had allegedly been associated with the gang, left the NYPD in May 2022.
She faces charges of conspiracy to extort, conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and aiding and abetting murder in support of extortion.
The top charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.
“There is no place for corruption of any kind in the NYPD,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said in a statement Wednesday.
“Today’s arrest of a former police officer is based on the steadfast work of our Office of Internal Affairs, a team dedicated to stamping out such betrayals of public trust.”
