Ex-NYPD cop charged with tipping off gangbanger boyfriend about federal probe
An NYPD cop tipped off her Bronx gangbanger boyfriend about a federal probe — even giving up the name of a key witness and helping him try to dodge a murder rap, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Gina Mestre, 33, who was with the department until last year, “shamelessly” fed confidential information to the “Shooting Boys” gang after getting into “an intimate relationship” with the crew’s leader, Manhattan federal prosecutors alleged.
The disgraced officer even tipped off her alleged beau, Andrew “Caballo” Done, about a police manhunt for him following the September 2020 shooting of a rival gang member, the four-count indictment claims.
“Gina Mestre shamelessly exploited her position of public trust to assist gang members in her own NYPD precinct that were terrorizing the Bronx by committing robbery, murders, drug trafficking and other acts of violence,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
“The indictment unsealed today alleges that the defendant abused her position as an NYPD police officer by, among other things, obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the gang and assisting the gang’s leader in evading capture for a cold-blooded murder committed in broad daylight,” Williams said.
Mestre, of Mohegan Lake in Westchester County, joined New York’s Finest in 2013 and was assigned to the Public Safety Unit at the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx.
According to public records, she had a checkered career on the job, with nearly three dozen complaints, most for alleged abuse of authority, filed against her — five of them later substantiated.
Mestre has also been named in at least 12 lawsuits that have thus far resulted in $765,000 in settlements, the records show.
By 2019, the alleged crooked cop was associating with Done and the “Shooting Boys” — even as the crew peddled fentanyl, crack and other drugs, and pulled off armed robberies and attacked rivals, the indictment claimed.
The gang had been terrorizing the University Heights neighborhood since at least 2017.
Prosecutors alleged Mestre began tipping off the gang about a federal grand jury investigation into their activities around June 2020 — and even gave them the name of a witness in the case who was later assaulted by the gang in an intimidation attempt.
On Nov. 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival gangbanger on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx. Cops retrieved surveillance video of the shooting and launched a manhunt — with Mestre being one of the officers on the case, according to the indictment.
Mestre allegedly sent Done the surveillance video and gave him details about the efforts to catch him.
Last year, federal prosecutors unsealed a 15-count indictment against 10 members of the “Shooting Boys,” including Done, who was charged in the 2020 murder. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 17, 2022.
Mestre, who had by then allegedly been linked to the gang, left the NYPD in May 2022.
She is charged with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and accessory after the fact to murder in aid of racketeering.
The top charge carries a maximum federal prison sentence of 30 years.
“There is no place for corruption of any kind in the NYPD,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said in a statement Wednesday.
“The arrest today of a former police officer is built upon the steadfast work of our Internal Affairs Bureau, a team driven to root out such betrayals of public trust.”
