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Bronxville resident John Cicero, age 40, a former NYPD officer, pleaded guilty on Oct. 13, 2021, to distributing large quantities of methamphetamine and gamma-butyrolactone (known as “GBL”) in Westchester County and New York City.
On Tuesday, April 12, US Attorney Damian Williams announced that Cicero has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, four years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a penalty of $216,262.50.
Beginning in 2017 through his arrest in February 2020, Williams said that 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.
Cicero admitted to repeatedly brokering large-scale drug transactions over recorded prison calls with an inmate who was in custody during the operation.
Williams noted that US Customers and Border Protection previously seized GBL sent from China to Cicero’s Westchester address.
As part of his guilty plea, Cicero admitted to being an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor in the criminal activity, which involved the importation of methamphetamine, and his offenses involved more than three kilograms of methamphetamine and 750 liters of GBL.
Officials made note that the alleged trafficking began years after Cicero left the NYPD.
Cicero was arrested in February 2020 in a Wall Street hotel that he rented under a false identity.
At the time of his arrest, authorities seized meth, GBL, a bank card, and a fake ID with his name all in the name of the false identity he rented the room under. During the subsequent investigation, detailed drug ledgers, credit card-making equipment, and notebooks full of victims’ personally identifiable information were all also recovered.
"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," Williams said.
The DA noted that earlier, co-conspirators Marco Caso, age 50, of Manhattan, and Irma Materasso, age 38, of New Rochelle pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute GBL and 50 grams of methamphetamine, and Bronx resident Matthew Mateo, age 25, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute GBL and 500 grams of methamphetamine.
“As he admitted, over several years, Cicero was a leader of a drug trafficking ring, and he was personally responsible for moving over three kilograms of methamphetamine and 750 liters of GBL, and importing narcotics from overseas,” Williams added.
“Thanks to the dedication of our partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cicero now awaits sentencing for his dangerous conduct.”
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