The disgraced cop who used his NYPD badge to smuggle guns, slot machines and illegal cigarettes into the city was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison after begging for forgiveness from his family, friends and mostly the department he betrayed.
In halting breaths, Brooklyn cop William Masso, 47, wiped away tears in Manhattan federal court while admitting he threw away his career and pension by leading a $1 million-a-year contraband ring because he was “dumb.”
“My actions have disgraced me, my family and friends and especially the New York City Police Department, which I consider my family,” said the 19-year veteran cop who worked out of the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn.
“I started out with cigarettes, Your Honor, and I know it was wrong. Then it just spiraled out of control. It was a dumb thing to do,” he said, breaking down in tears while clutching a rosary.
Masso was arrested last October as the leader of the badge-flashing smuggling gang — including four other active-duty cops, three retired officers, a city sanitation cop and a New Jersey correction officer and two other men — after a two-year FBI investigation. Masso pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in February. All but one of the other suspects also pleaded guilty.
Masso, who boasted that he was the “general” of the dirty dozen, began transporting illegal cigarettes from Virginia and moved up to stolen slot machines at the behest of a confidential FBI informant.
He eventually graduated into transporting weapons — included one trip where he strategically displayed his NYPD jacket in the rear window of his car so he could easily smuggle a shotgun, three M16 rifles and 20 handguns, with scratched-off serial numbers, into the city.
“Masso was willing to use his badge in the commission of these crimes,” Assistant US Attorney Carrie Cohen said. “He was the manager, the organizer.”
The four rows of supporters, including his wife, three kids and 81-year-old father, and dozens of letters from friends and people he’s helped rescue during his career couldn’t save the fallen officer.
“He learned his lesson. He’s a broken man. He’s destitute. He did it to himself,” his lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, told Judge John Koeltl.