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Mohegan Lake resident Gina Mestre, age 33, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for obstructing a federal investigation into the Shooting Boys gang and helping the group's leader evade justice for murder, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Friday, March 29.
According to federal officials, Mestre, who served with the NYPD between July 2013 to May 2022, was assigned to the 52nd Precinct’s Public Safety Unit. Much of her work with the unit centered on reducing gun violence in the area, much of which involved the Bronx-based Shooting Boys gang.
In June 2020, Mestre began communicating with the gang's leader, Andrew Done, also known as "Caballo," and eventually began an intimate relationship with him. During this time, she gave Done and other gang members confidential law enforcement information about the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys, officials said.
Some of this information included the fact that federal investigators were about to bring an indictment against the gang, according to officials, who added that Mestre also told Done about impending law enforcement operations. This prompted him and other gang members to dispose of weapons and hide other criminal activity before authorities arrived.
To make matters worse, Mestre also disclosed the identity of a cooperating witness who had been giving authorities information about the gang. This led to Done and other gang members assaulting the witness to stop them from giving away more information, officials said.
Mestre's illegal activity culminated when she helped Done escape arrest following the murder of a rival gang member he committed on Nov. 5, 2020, on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx. Even though she had been one of the officers who helped identify Done as the murder's perpetrator, Mestre warned him of law enforcement's efforts to apprehend him, allowing him to flee from the US, officials said.
Despite Mestre's help, ten Shooting Boys members were later charged in a 15-count indictment with several federal crimes in March 2022. Additionally, Done was charged in connection with the murder and was apprehended in the Dominican Republic months later, eventually being sentenced to 35 years in prison in February 2023.
As for Mestre, she pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact to murder in aid of racketeering on Thursday, Dec. 7. In addition to her prison sentence, she will be required to serve two years of supervised release.
US Attorney Damian Williams condemned Mestre's actions, saying, "Gina Mestre betrayed and abused the trust placed in her by the NYPD and the people of New York."
"She swore to protect the public from criminal activity, but instead participated in significant crimes of her own by passing confidential information to a gang leader and helping him evade capture for the murder of a rival gang member," Williams continued.
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