Cop who protected mafia gambling dens convicted in New York

Nassau County police officer Hector Rosario, who was accused by the prosecution of ‘selling his badge to the mob’, has been convicted of lying to the FBI by a federal jury in Brooklyn.

Rosario had been on the payroll of the Long Island Bonanno crime family and was paid just $1,500 a month to run operations threatening and raiding illegal gambling dens run by rival mobs, including one at a chess club and in the backroom of a shoe repair store, according to the New York Times.

Having been under investigation for years, prosecutors uncovered a web of illicit activities, including tipping off one mobster that he was under investigation, and, in a more sinister twist, supplying the address, via police systems, of a witness he thought was co-operating with the authorities.

A number of law enforcement raids were directed by Rosario towards the stings on the rival Genovese crime family, but eventually in 2020, Rosario was hauled in by the FBI and interviewed as they investigated mafia activity in the area.

Rosario was acquitted of the more serious charge of Obstruction of Justice, which carried a term of up to 20 years in prison, but still faces up to five years, although he remains on bail and his lawyers have indicted that they intend to appeal. His legal team had argued that Rosario couldn’t have been interfering with the federal investigation because he wasn’t aware they were looking into the activities of his criminal associates.

“Hector Rosario cared more about lining his pockets with Bonanno family money and protecting his own interests than his fidelity to the law,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.

“He disgracefully compromised the investigative work of his fellow detectives by tipping off a target and lied to federal agents as the walls were closing in on him.”

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