KEY POINTS

  • Former NYPD officer John Cicero is among the 5 suspects indicted for selling meth and GBL, a date-rape drug
  • Macro Caso, Eric Baker and Mathew Matteo were arrested Tuesday
  • Fourth suspect Irma Materasso is already in state custody under separate charges
  • Cicero has yet to be arrested and remains at large

Five suspects, including a former NYPD officer who sold illegal drugs in the streets of New York City and Westchester County were indicted in White Plains federal court for allegedly selling methemphetamine and gamma-butyrolactone, a date-rape drug.

Macro Caso, 48, Eric Baker, 37, and Mathew Matteo, 22, were arrested Tuesday and presented in White Plains federal court. A fourth suspect, Irma Materasso, 36, is already in state custody under separate charges.

Materasso is scheduled to be transferred to federal custody on a later date, said NBC New York.

police line
Representation image of a crime scene. Gerd Altmann/ Pixabay

Meanwhile, 38-year-old John Cicero has yet to be arrested and remains at large, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman told the outlet.

Cicero served as a police officer for the NYPD for two years between 2008 and 2010. He was notoriously remembered for beating a handcuffed man on January 5, 2010.

After pleading guilty for the assault, the ex-cop only served 400 hours of community service despite prosecutors asking for a 60-day jail sentence, according to the New York Daily News.

As stated in the indictment, the suspects “conspired to distribute” 500 grams and more of meth from at least 2017 through February 2020. At the same time, Caso, Materasso, Cicero and Matteo also allegedly conspired to distribute gamma-butyrolactone, or “GBL,” a liquid date-rape drug, said NBC New York.

“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. He now faces the same grim reality criminals he once locked up did – a long prison sentence, this time in a federal jail cell,” FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney, Jr. said in a statement.

Caso, Cicero, Materasso, Baker and Matteo were charged with conspiring to distribute 500 grams of methemphetamine. It carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

For charges to distribute GBL, Caso Cicero, Materasso and Matteo could face up to 20 years behind bars.

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