The former DEA agent previously supervised money laundering investigations involving Jose Irizarry, a former standout DEA agent indicted last month on charges he conspired to launder money with a Colombian drug cartel.
FILE - This June 13, 2016 file photo shows Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Florida. Federal investigators took the unusual step of wiretapping a retired supervisor in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami office for at least three months in 2019 as part of an inquiry into whether sensitive case information was leaked to attorneys for suspected drug traffickers in Colombia, current and former law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
The inquiry comes amid a string of DEA scandals and has sent a chill through South Florida’s close-knit, fiercely competitive narco-defense circles because of former supervisor Manny Recio’s strong ties to federal law enforcement and private-sector lawyers. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, said the probe is focused on Recio’s interaction with defense lawyers and agents he worked with at the DEA, including Special Agent John Costanzo, whose phone was similarly searched.
Prosecutors recently began notifying third parties that their communications were intercepted between July and October during the “electronic surveillance” of Recio’s cellphone. The AP obtained a copy of one such notification. Derek Maltz, a retired agent who once headed the DEA’s Special Operations Division, said those rules are in place in part because in the often shady world of narco defense attorneys and abundantly-wealthy clients from Colombia, Mexico and elsewhere who think they can use their influence to cut deals with prosecutors like they were able to do back home.Federal prosecutors have been clamping down on attorneys who cross the ethical line.
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