[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1733-E1734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   INVESTIGATION OF JOSEPH OCCHIPINTI

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR.

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 26, 1996

  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, as part of my on-going investigation of 
the case of former Immigration and Naturalization Service agent Joseph 
Occhipinti, I am inserting into the Record the following sworn 
affidavit:

           Affidavit, State of New Jersey, County of Monmouth

       William Acosta, Being Duly Sworn, Deposes and States:
       1. I executed this affidavit on behalf of Staten Island 
     Borough President Guy V. Molinari and U.S. Representative 
     James Traficant, Jr. who are investigating the alleged drug 
     cartel conspiracy against former Immigration & Naturalization 
     Service Agent Joseph Occhipinti. I possess evidence which can 
     corroborate the drug cartel conspiracy

[[Page E1734]]

     against Mr. Occhipinti and I have agreed to share that 
     evidence with the United States Congress and Borough 
     President Molinari.
       2. I am a former thirteen year law enforcement official who 
     successfully infiltrated the Medellin and Cali Colombian drug 
     cartels. I am considered an expert on the Colombian and 
     Dominican drug and money laundering operations in the New 
     York City area.
       3. In 1987, I was previously employed as an undercover 
     operative for the United States Customs Service, wherein I 
     was assigned to route out corruption at John F. Kennedy 
     International Airport. In 1987, I was the principle 
     undercover agent on ``Operation Airport 88'', which resulted 
     in the prosecution and conviction of seventeen government 
     officials for bribery corruption and related criminal 
     charges. I was then promoted to Special Agent and reassigned 
     to the Los Angeles District Office.
       4. In 1990, I was appointed to the New York City Police 
     Department as a Police Officer. In view of my Colombian 
     heritage and confidential sources close to the Colombian 
     cartel, I was eventually assigned to the Internal Affairs 
     Unit. During my undercover activity, I generated evidence of 
     police corruption for the Deputy Commissioner of Internal 
     Affairs which was later corroborated by the ``Mollen 
     Commission'' hearings which investigated police corruption.
       5. On January 14, 1992, Manuel De Dios, a close personal 
     friend and world renown journalist executed the attached 
     notarized affidavit, wherein, Mr. Dios corroborated the 
     existence of a drug cartel conspiracy against Mr. Occhipinti. 
     The orchestrators of the conspiracy were major Dominican 
     organized crime figures connected with the ``Dominican 
     Federation'' which is the front for the Dominican drug 
     cartel. The Federation are the principle drug distributors in 
     the United States for the Colombian cartel. Unfortunately, 
     Mr. De Dios was assassinated before he could bring forward 
     his sources who could prove the drug cartel conspiracy 
     against Mr. Occhipinti. After Mr. De Dios assassination, I 
     too became fearful of my personal safety and never made 
     public the evidence on the Occhipinti case.
       6. It should be noted that I personally assisted Mr. De 
     Dios in this investigation of the Occhipinti case which 
     corroborated the Federation conspiracy. In fact, I personally 
     accompanied Mr. De Dios to the Washington Heights area where 
     we secretly taped recorded Federation members who conformed 
     the drug cartel conspiracy. Those tapes still exist and can 
     exonerate Mr. Occhipinti. In essence, Mr. Occhipinti was set 
     up because of his increased enforcement efforts on Project 
     Bodega which was exposing and hurting the Dominican 
     Federation's criminal operations in New York City, which 
     included illegal wire transfers, drug distribution, gambling 
     operations, food stamp fraud, food coupon fraud, among other 
     organized crime activity.
       7. My investigation also determined that Mr. Occhipinti was 
     exposing a major money laundering and loan sharking operation 
     relating to the Federation which was controlled by the ``Sea 
     Crest Trading Company'' of Greenwich, Connecticut. Sea Crest 
     also maintains an office at 4750 Bronx River Parkway in the 
     Bronx, New York. Sea Crest was using the Capital National 
     Bank in order to facilitate their money laundering 
     operations. In 1993, Carlos Cordoba, the President of Capital 
     National Bank was convicted in Federal Court at Brooklyn, New 
     York for millions of dollars in money laundering and he 
     received a token sentence of probation. My investigation 
     confirmed that Sea Crest, as well as the Dominican 
     Federation, are being politically protected by high ranking 
     public officials who have received illegal political 
     contributions which were drug proceeds. In addition, the 
     operatives in Sea Crest were former CIA Cuban operatives who 
     were involved in the ``Bay of Pigs''. This is one of the 
     reasons why the intelligence community has consistently 
     protected and insulated Sea Crest and the Dominican 
     Federation from criminal prosecution.
       8. At present, there are nine major Colombian drug families 
     which control drug operations in the New York City area. 
     These drug families often referred to as the ``Nine Kings''. 
     The Dominican Federation are part of their drug trafficking 
     and money laundering operations. I possess documentary 
     evidence, as well as video surveillance tapes of their drug 
     operations. In addition, the New York City Police has 
     investigative files to corroborate this fact. I have also 
     uncovered substantial evidence of political and police 
     corruption which has been intentionally ignored. In fact, it 
     is my belief that former New York City Police Internal 
     Affairs Commissioner Walter Mack, who I directly worked for, 
     was intentionally fired because of his efforts to expose 
     police corruption. I plan to make public this evidence to the 
     United States Congress, as well as key members of the media 
     in order to preserve this evidence in the event I am 
     assassinated like Mr. De Dios.
       9. It should also be noted that Criminal Investigators 
     Benjamin Saurino and Ronald Gardello of the U.S. Attorney's 
     Office in Manhattan similarly ignored the evidence I brought 
     forward to them on the Nine Kings and Dominican Federation. 
     These two investigators who were credited for convicting Mr. 
     Occhipinti and they made it clear to me they didn't want to 
     hear the evidence I had on the Federation which could have 
     exonerated Mr. Occhipinti. They were only interested in 
     corruption cases I had brought to their office. In fact, I 
     recall a conversation, wherein, Investigator Saurino asked me 
     about my involvement with Manuel De Dios and if I knew 
     anything about the Occhipinti case. He then stopped and 
     referred to Occipinti in a derogatory manner, by saying 
     ``He's no * * * good''. Realizing his bias and lack of 
     interest in investigating the Federation and Nine Kings, I 
     changed the subject of conversation.
       10. In April, 1995, I resigned from the New York City 
     Police Department, Internal Affairs Unit after it became 
     evident that my efforts to expose police corruption was being 
     hampered. The same reason why I believe Commissioner Walter 
     Mack was fired. It became evident to me that my life was in 
     eminent danger and I could be easily set up on fabricated 
     misconduct charges like Mr. Occhipinti. In fact, they brought 
     departmental charges against me in 1995 and I won the case. 
     The trial judge also admonished the department on the record 
     for perjury. Often, I found myself isolated and in constant 
     danger working alone in the worst neighborhoods of the city 
     without a backup. Today, I possess substantial evidence to 
     prove that the NYC Police Department media campaign to 
     demonstrate that they could independently police themselves 
     and route out corruption was simply a media ploy to avoid 
     having an independent counsel to oversee their internal 
     affairs unit. In reality, corruption is still rampant in the 
     department and high ranking police brass are intentionally 
     terminating viable corruption investigations in order to 
     avoid future scandals exposed by the Mollen Commission. I 
     also possess a consensually monitored tape conversation which 
     implicates a high ranking police official who received bribes 
     from the Dominican Federation.
       11. I am willing to testify before Congress as to the 
     allegations set forth in this affidavit. In addition, I am 
     willing to turn over to Borough President Molinari and 
     Congressman Traficant the documentary evidence I possess on 
     the Dominican Federation, the Nine Kings and the Occhipinti 
     drug cartel conspiracy. There are other important pieces of 
     information relating to drug cartel operations and political 
     corruption that I have not made public in this affidavit in 
     order to protect my sources as well as ongoing media 
     investigations that I am involved with. In addition, I am 
     willing to submit to a polygraph examination to prove the 
     veracity of my allegations.
                                                   William Acosta.
                                 ______
                                 

             Affidavit, State of New York, County of Queens

       Manual DeDios, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
       I am a former editor of El Diario/La Prensa Newspaper and 
     am currently the editor of a weekly newspaper published in 
     the Spanish language known as Canbyo.
       During the course of my work for Canbyo, I undertook to 
     write an expose concerning criminal complaints brought 
     against an Immigration and Naturalization Service Supervisory 
     Special Agent named Joseph Occhipinti by various members of 
     the Federation of Dominican Merchants and Industrialists of 
     New York.
       During the course of my investigatory work in researching 
     for the article, I interviewed numerous individuals who are 
     members of the Federation of Dominican Merchants and 
     Industrialists of New York. These individuals confided to me 
     that Mr. Occhipinti had been set up by the Federation and 
     that the complaints against him were fraudulent. These 
     individuals have indicated to me that they are in fear of 
     their safety and as a result would not go public with this 
     information.
       I would be more than willing to share my information with 
     any law enforcement agencies or Courts concerned with these 
     matters and would cooperate fully in any further 
     investigations.
     Manual DeDios.

                          ____________________