Larry Celona and Bruce Golding
The New York Post
NEW YORK — A former DEA agent was among four people busted yesterday for allegedly impersonating law-enforcement officers to pull off home-invasion robberies, The Post has learned.
Marco Perez, 45, allegedly switched sides after he was fired by the feds following a dust-up with two cops over a 1997 traffic ticket.
Authorities said he joined a crew of crooks that posed as NYPD detectives and federal agents to rip off suspected drug dealers and cigarette bootleggers in The Bronx.
A Manhattan federal-court indictment cites two capers: a November 2011 robbery that netted about $200,000 and a load of untaxed smokes, and a June robbery in which about $1,000 was stolen.
The four — who were snared following a probe by the Impersonations Unit of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau — are also suspected of pulling off about 10 other heists, a source said.
Perez sued the city for false arrest over his fateful traffic ticket, and settled the case midway through a 2005 trial.
All the suspects were held without bail.
Copyright 2012 N.Y.P. Holdings