Ex-NYPD Cop Helped Her Gang Leader Lover Evade Arrest After Deadly Shooting, Feds Says

NEW YORK (DOJ) – Federal officials in New York announced the unsealing of an Indictment today charging Gina Mestre, a former NYPD Officer, for her participation in a racketeering conspiracy with members of the Shooting Boys gang, including her involvement in obstructing a federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys gang and serving as an accessory after the fact to a murder committed by the Shooting Boys gang. Mestre was arrested last night and will be arraigned before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, to whom the case is assigned, later this afternoon in Manhattan federal court.

As alleged in the Indictment and other documents:

The Shooting Boys gang is a criminal organization based in the University Heights section of the Bronx. Since at least 2017, gang members sold drugs, used guns, and committed numerous acts of violence against members of rival gangs. The gang’s territory and base of operations fell within the jurisdiction of the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct. The recognized leader of the Shooting Boys was Andrew Done, a/k/a “Caballo.”

Mestre was an NYPD police officer from July 2013 to May 2022 assigned to the 52nd Precinct’s Public Safety Unit. In the summer of 2020, a major focus of the precinct and the Public Safety Unit was the reduction of gun violence, much of which was attributed to members of the Shooting Boys.

In or about June 2020, Mestre began communicating with Done through secret social media accounts and phone numbers. Mestre and Done began an intimate relationship, during which Mestre provided Done and other gang members with confidential non-public law enforcement information about the federal grand jury investigation into the Shooting Boys. For example, Mestre warned Done, and other gang members, that federal investigators were preparing to bring a federal indictment against the Shooting Boys. Mestre also warned Done about impending law enforcement operations, enabling Done and other gang members to conceal their criminal activity. In addition, Mestre disclosed the identity of a witness cooperating with law enforcement and providing information about the gang, which allowed Done and other Shooting Boys to assault and intimidate the witness in an effort to prevent the witness from further cooperation.

On or about November 5, 2020, Done shot and killed a rival gang member (“Victim-1”) as Victim-1 sat in his car on Cromwell Avenue in the Bronx. NYPD Detectives investigating the murder recovered security camera video (the “Video”) capturing Done’s commission of the murder. Several members of the 52nd Precinct were called upon to assist in the identification of the person captured on the Video. Mestre was one of several officers who identified Done as the perpetrator.

During the manhunt to apprehend Done, of which Mestre was a part, Mestre sent Done a copy of the Video to his phone and secretly communicated with Done the day of the murder and in the weeks afterwards. Mestre warned Done about law enforcement’s efforts to capture him, allowing Done to eventually flee from the United States.

In March 2022, 10 members of the Shooting Boys were charged in a 15-count indictment with various federal crimes, including racketeering conspiracy and murder. Done was charged with the murder of Victim-1 and was apprehended in the Dominican Republic several months later.

On November 17, 2022, Done pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to his role in the murder of Victim-1. On February 22, 2023, Done was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

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Mestre, 33, of Mohegan Lake, New York, is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of accessory after the fact to murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

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