Cop Accused Of Letting Gang Leader Escape Due To Romance
The Department of Homeland Security has accused a former NYPD officer from the Hudson Valley of aiding her romantic partner, a gang leader, in escaping the country following a murder and additional criminal activities.
Officials from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, alongside the NYPD and Homeland Security, have revealed an Indictment that was unsealed today, charging a resident of the Hudson Valley.
A 33-year-old individual named Gina Mestre, hailing from Mohegan Lake, New York, is facing charges of being involved in racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to obstruct justice, conspiring to hinder an official proceeding, and acting as an accessory after the fact to murder in support of racketeering.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams remarked, “As alleged, Gina Mestre shamelessly exploited her position of public trust to assist gang members in her own NYPD precinct that were terrorizing the Bronx by committing robberies, murders, drug trafficking, and other acts of violence.”
Mestre, a former NYPD officer, is accused of aiding the Shooting Boys gang, including obstructing a federal grand jury investigation related to the gang and providing assistance after the fact in a murder committed by the gang.
Williams added, “The defendant abused her position as an NYPD police officer by, among other things, obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the gang and assisting the gang’s leader in evading capture for a cold-blooded murder committed in broad daylight.”
The actions attributed to the defendant go against the oath she took to safeguard the public and her fellow NYPD officers from the kind of criminal activity that she aided the gang in committing. This Indictment emphasizes the determination of Williams’ office and law enforcement partners to combat all forms of police corruption.
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban emphasized that there is no tolerance for any type of corruption within the NYPD and that the arrest of a former police officer is the result of the diligent work of the Internal Affairs Bureau, dedicated to eradicating such breaches of public trust.
The Shooting Boys gang, operating in the University Heights area of the Bronx, is a criminal organization involved in drug and gun sales as well as various acts of violence since 2017. The gang operated within the jurisdiction of the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct.
Gina Mestre served as an NYPD officer from July 2013 to May 2022 in the 52nd Precinct’s Public Safety Unit.
The gang’s leader is identified as Andrew Done.
An “intimate relationship” between Mestre and Done began in June 2020, according to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Around November 5, 2020, Done allegedly killed a rival gang member while the victim was in his car on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx.
Mestre reportedly informed Done that the NYPD was seeking his arrest, allowing him to escape the country. Although Done was eventually apprehended, he pleaded guilty to murder in late 2022 and received a 35-year prison sentence in early 2023.
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