Federal Jury Convicts Veteran DEA Agents in Bribery and Conspiracy Case, Imperiling High-Profile Investigations

Veteran DEA Supervisors John Costanzo Jr. and Manny Recio Guilty of Leaking Confidential Info in Exchange for Bribes, Adding to Recent Alarming String of Corrupt DEA Agents

• Former DEA supervisors John Costanzo Jr. and Manny Recio were found guilty of leaking confidential information to defense attorneys in exchange for bribes, jeopardizing high-profile cases and putting the lives of overseas drug informants at risk.
• Evidence indicated that after his 2018 retirement Recio began working as a private investigator for Miami defense lawyers and repeatedly asked Costanzo to search names in a confidential DEA database to inform his new employers of ongoing federal investigations.
• Prosecutors alleged that Recio made covert payments to Costanzo amounting to $73,000, which were used for purchases including plane tickets and a down payment on a condo in Florida.
• Costanzo and Recio manipulated middlemen, sham invoices, and a fictitious company address to mask the bribes, deleting hundreds of text messages and calls in the process.
• While they have continually denied the charges, neither Recio nor Costanzo took the stand to testify. Their defense failed to connect the payments to the information leaks, with the lawyers criticizing the investigation as unsound and speculative.

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