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An NYPD detective on Mayor Eric Adams’ security detail worked as an unauthorised personal security guard for one of the suspects in the Manhattan crypto torture case, a report alleges.
The officer has been identified as Robert Cordero, a detective of the first grade who joined the force in 2005. He is currently assigned to the Executive Protection Unit, Adams’ detail.
Another officer has also been named as being connected to the case, drug cop Raymond Low, who also joined the NYPD in 2005. The pair became sworn officers on the same day.
Cordero is accused of picking up the victim from the airport, reports The New York Times.
He also provided security outside the Prince Street townhouse where the alleged torture took place, sources say.
“Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty,” said a City Hall statement issued to the Times. “We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing.”
The NYPD has acknowledged that two officers were placed on modified duty as part of an ongoing internal review.
It’s not clear how much the two were being paid for their alleged security services.
Cordero also served in protection details for Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
The Independent has contacted the department for further comment.
The reports emerged the same day a grand jury indicted one of the alleged torturers, John Woeltz, 37, an investor known as the “crypto king” of Kentucky.
Woeltz was denied bail and is set to be arraigned on June 11.
Woeltz’s alleged accomplice, William Duplessie, was arrested Tuesday and is awaiting indictment.
The men are accused of luring Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan to the house on May 6 and holding him captive for 17 days, torturing him with pistol-whippings, using a chainsaw on his leg, shocking him and dangling him from a building.
The captive was allegedly able to escape by giving up his Bitcoin password last week, then fleeing into the street, where police said they found him bloodied and shoeless.
Suspect Woeltz has “every intention to fight this case,” his attorney Wayne Gosnell said in court.
Police say the alleged kidnappers knew the victim.
