NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A former NYPD officer was sentenced Tuesday to ten years in prison for trafficking large quantities of a date-rape drug imported from China, as well as methamphetamine from Mexico, the Department of Justice announced.
In addition to the ten-year prison sentence, John Cicero, 40, of Bronxville in Westchester County, was also sentenced to four years of supervised release and ordered to pay a forfeiture penalty of $216,262.50.
He previously pled guilty on October 13, 2021 to one count of conspiring to distribute GBL and 50 grams of methamphetamine.
The charged conduct began years after Cicero left the NYPD.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement, "A former NYPD police officer once sworn to protect the public, John Cicero spent years betraying his former law enforcement partners, enriching himself, and endangering the community by importing GBL, a dangerous liquid date-rape drug, from China and methamphetamine from Mexico and trafficking massive amounts of both throughout Westchester and New York City, including in Hell's Kitchen and midtown-Manhattan around Penn Station. Thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement, Cicero will serve a substantial sentence in prison for his callous crimes."
According to the indictment, "beginning in at least 2017 and lasting until his arrest in February 2020, 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."
Federal officials alleged Cicero "played a prominent and leadership role in the conspiracy, as the conspiracy's top importer of GBL from China, and as someone who had direct access to the Mexico-based source of supply and with whom he arranged the receipt of and payment for methamphetamine."
Officials said he also "created and used fake identity documents and stolen credit cards to pay for, among other things, the luxury Manhattan hotel rooms where drugs were trafficked and used."
They also allege Cicero "repeatedly brokered large-scale narcotics transactions over recorded prison calls with an inmate then in New York State custody."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has previously seized GBL sent from China to Cicero's home. Cicero held a supervisory role in the criminal activity, which involved over three kilograms of methamphetamine and 750 liters of GBL, according to the indictment.
Cicero was arrested on Feb. 19, 2020 in a Wall Street hotel, in a room he had rented under a false identity, officials said. In addition to methamphetamine and GBL, law enforcement recovered from his room a bank card and a fake ID, bearing Cicero's photograph, all in the name of the false identity to whom the room was rented. Officials also recovered detailed drug ledgers, credit card making equipment, and notebooks full of victims' personally identifiable information.
