Tag: Smuggling

On August 24, former federal correctional officer Victor Casado, 35, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and to introduce contraband into prison. He also agreed to forfeit $26,500 worth of bribes to the government. Casado was a correctional officer at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal jail in Manhattan, from 2012 to 2018.

The smuggling scheme

In 2016 and 2017, Casado smuggled cellphones, alcohol, over-the-counter medications, and food into the MCC in exchange for bribe payments from inmates. The scheme is described in detail here.

In October 2017, one of the inmates pled guilty to bribing Casado and became a cooperating witness for the government. Read about the inmate’s case here.

Federal correctional officer Victor Casado, 35, of the Bronx, New York, was arrested on April 5, 2018, and charged with taking bribes to smuggle cellphones, alcohol, over-the-counter medications, and food into the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal jail in lower Manhattan.

The alleged smuggling scheme 

According to the complaint, sometime in the second half of 2016, an inmate at the MCC named Reza Zarrab was approached by another inmate who told him that Casado wanted to give him his phone number. The inmate suggested that Zarrab should payoff Casado. Zarrab agreed and directed one of his attorneys to pay Casado $5,000. Zarrab’s attorney arranged for a car service driver who worked for her to deliver the cash.