A former Nassau County police detective is facing up to five years in prison after he was convicted of lying to FBI agents investigating his involvement with reputed members of the mafia.
A jury found Hector Rosario guilty of making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about his work for the Bonanno crime family following a weeklong trial at Brooklyn federal court. In a split verdict, the 51-year-old Mineola man was acquitted of obstruction of justice.
“Rosario’s lies not only protected an organized criminal enterprise, but also eroded the public’s trust in law enforcement and is a disservice to all who wear the badge honoring their oath to protect and serve,” Leslie Backschies, the acting assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said.
Prosecutors said the Bonanno crime family paid Rosario to protect illegal gambling operations that the mob ran inside various coffee shops and sports clubs throughout Queens and on Long Island for about a decade.
At one point, the Bonannos paid Rosario to try to conduct a fake police raid on another illegal gambling operation run by the rival Genovese crime family operated at Sal’s Shoe Repair in Merrick and the Centro Calcio Italiano Club in West Babylon, authorities said. Rosario also tipped a fellow detective off to another rival gambling spot in an attempt to get the location shut down, according to investigators.
Rosario also looked up the home address of a possible witness that the crooked cop believed was cooperating with authorities against the Bonanno crime family, prosecutors added.
But when FBI agents questioned Rosario in January 2020 during a racketeering investigation into the Bonanno and Genovese families, Rosario falsely stated that he had no information about the mafia and illegal gambling spots.
Rosario was a 15-year veteran of the force who earned $182,091 annually before he was fired in 2022 upon his indictment amid an FBI mob dragnet that netted more than a dozen arrests.
U.S. District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano will decide Rosario’s sentence at a later date. He had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the obstruction charge.
His attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment but reportedly plan to appeal the conviction.
