Rick Cowan, Undercover Detective Who Fought the Mob, Feels Betrayed by His Own Police Department

An NYPD detective who risked his life to infiltrate the Mafia has been stripped of the right to carry a firearm because of a line-of-duty injury, the Daily News has learned.

Rick Cowan, a retired first-grade detective, posed as a recycling company exec named Danny Benedetto in the early 1990s to expose mob influence in the carting industry.

His work secretly recording mobsters and corrupt businessmen earned him one of the NYPD's top medals - honorable mention. But now, with the NYPD refusing to let him carry a weapon for protection, he feels betrayed by the job he loved.

"The nature of the Mafia is these people are very vengeful," said Cowan, 52, who retired in December 2008 after 25 years on the force.

After suffering serious injuries in an on-duty car accident, Cowan had a shunt put in his head - a device that carries a small risk of complications if he suffers a blow to the head.

Department officials are concerned that if Cowan lost consciousness, he would be unable to safeguard his firearm and consigned him to its "no carry" list.

Cowan's lawyer said the NYPD medical division appears more concerned with liability issues than the safety of the detective and his family.

"He's being deprived of a firearm for no logical reason," said his lawyer, Jeffrey Goldberg of Lake Success. "He did a great job for New York City, and this is no way to treat a hero."

Cowan sued in Manhattan Supreme Court to get off the "no carry" list but a judge recently rejected his appeal.

He's hoping he can persuade the NYPD to at least remove the label so he can apply to carry a firearm in other jurisdictions.

Thanks to John Marzulli

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Reputed Gambino Mobster, Andrew Merola, Pleads Guilty

A reputed high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family in New Jersey pleaded guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges today, admitting he led a crew that profited from illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, identity theft, fraud and labor racketeering.

Andrew Merola of East Hanover confessed his guilt during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark. He became the 20th defendant to make a deal with prosecutors and plead guilty to charges outlined in a sweeping May 2008 racketeering indictment.

Three remaining defendants, including Martin Taccetta, a reputed former underboss of the Lucchese crime family’s New Jersey faction, are awaiting trial.

Merola, who prosecutors say enjoyed a lavish lifestyle purportedly supported by a job as a crane operator, was among 23 reputed members and associates of the Gambino and Lucchese crime families accused in 2008 if engaging in what the FBI called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal activity.”

The defendants were accused of shaking down lunch-truck operators, putting mobsters in no-show jobs, using union muscle to collect bribes to allow non-union workers on construction sites and raking in hefty profits from bettors who wagered more than $1 million a month.

In his plea, Merola acknowledged those crimes and also admitted his crew targeted retailers, including a Lowe’s home improvement store in Paterson, where conspirators bought high-ticket power tools, wide-screen televisions and appliances by switching bar code labels from less expensive items and then returning the products for refunds or gift cards. With an insider’s help, they also attempted to steal the identities of patrons who applied for Lowe’s credit cards, Merola said.

Wearing a pin-stripped charcoal suit, Merola declined comment after the hearing, except to say that he is not cooperating with the government. Under the terms of his plea deal, he faces 10 to 12 years in prison. A sentencing date was not immediately set.

Thanks to Peter J. Sampson

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National Crime Information Center Rundown

NCIC: A Quick Rundown of the FBI's National Crime Information Center.

• Initially created in 1967 to help find fugitives and stolen property.
• Over the years, additional capabilities and categories added (i.e., missing/unidentified persons, violent gangs/terrorist organizations, identity theft victims, immigration violators).
• Over the years, additional capabilities and categories added (i.e., missing/unidentified persons, violent gangs/terrorist organizations, identity theft victims, immigration violators).
• 11.7 million records currently in NCIC
• Records come from FBI, other federal agencies, state/local law enforcement, authorized courts.
• Accessed by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies from squad cars, squad rooms, and increasingly, PDAs.
• First year of operation, handled 2 million transactions
• Fiscal Year 2009, handled almost 2.5 billion.
• Averages 6.7 million transactions a day.
• Average response time is 0.06 seconds.

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Video of Chicago Outfit Mob Bosses

Video of Chicago Outfit Mob Bosses.

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Searching FBI Crime Records Off-Line

Almost six million times a day, law enforcement officers from around the country conduct online searches of the FBI's electronic repository of criminal justice records called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). They’re looking for information and possible leads on fugitives, missing persons, terrorists, convicted sex offenders, violent gang members, stolen property, and more.

Sometimes, though, agencies don’t have enough data for an electronic search or need additional information no longer available. So the FBI offers another investigative tool—the off-line search—which searches information in the database a different way or looks through records no longer available on the NCIC server.

During the past fiscal year, CJIS ran more than 22,000 off-line searches for law enforcement.

Kinds of off-line searches include:

● Use of non-unique personal descriptors, like sex, height, estimated age, and hair color (these descriptors can be used in online searches but only in conjunction with other identifiers, like a person’s name and date of birth);

● Partial information searches (i.e., an officer only has three or four characters of a license plate or only half of a vehicle identification number);

● Checking purged records (records that have been removed by law enforcement, or as result of varying retention schedules); and

● Searches of NCIC’s transaction logs, which may uncover other queries on the same suspect made by another law enforcement agency (can help establish a suspect’s whereabouts).

Perhaps one of the more well-known examples of an off-line NCIC search involved Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

● After identifying McVeigh as the renter of the explosives-laden Ryder truck, investigators passed the FBI his name for all available information on him. An off-line search of NCIC’s transaction log showed that about 90 minutes after the bombing, the Oklahoma State Highway Patrol made an inquiry on McVeigh. Armed with this information, investigators contacted the highway patrol and found that McVeigh was sitting—two days after the bombing—in a nearby jail cell on unrelated weapons charges.

A more recent example of how off-line searches can make a difference:

● On September 26, 2009, a 13-year-old girl was reported missing from Daviess County, Kentucky, and her information—including details about the convicted sex offender she was last seen with—was entered into NCIC. That night, an agent from the FBI's Louisville office, working with local authorities, contacted CJIS and requested an off-line search of the suspect’s license plate. Very quickly, they discovered that the Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Office had run a check on the license plate earlier that day (before Kentucky officials had a chance to enter the suspect’s plate number into NCIC). Officials in Wisconsin were notified, and the man was located by 4 a.m. the next day in a Wisconsin hotel. The girl was recovered safely.

Both online and off-line NCIC searches are just another example of how the FBI's leveraging technology and information-sharing to track down criminals.

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