NYPD Cop Pleads Guilty To Running M-16 Rifles, Handguns and Stolen Cigarettes Across State Lines

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

NYPD Cop Pleads Guilty To Running M-16 Rifles, Handguns and Stolen Cigarettes Across State Lines

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — A New York police officer admitted to taking part in a scheme involving the illegal interstate transportation of guns and stolen cigarettes, federal prosecutors said.

William Masso, 48, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty today to four counts of conspiracy before U.S. District Judge John G. Koetl in Manhattan, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office said in a statement.

Masso was one of 12 men, including eight active-duty and retired New York police officers, charged in October with scheming to transport M-16 rifles and handguns with defaced serial numbers across state lines.

Prosecutors said Masso met a confidential informant working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in late 2009 and expressed an interest in getting and selling cigarettes and other contraband. The informant supplied Masso with cigarettes that he said were stolen from out of state, and Masso sold them, prosecutors said.

In 2010, Masso discussed helping the informant’s “boss,” actually an undercover agent, transport and sell stolen goods, prosecutors said. Masso said he could recruit police officers to help with the scheme, according to the U.S.

M-16 Rifles

The FBI supplied Masso and his co-conspirators with purportedly stolen goods including three M-16 rifles, a shotgun, 16 handguns, 12 slot machines and thousands of cartons of cigarettes, prosecutors said. The goods had a street value of about $1 million, prosecutors said.

(Source: beatyourselfup)