Call them the bootleggers in blue.
Eight current and former city cops were part of a $1 million ring that smuggled guns, cigarettes and slot machines into New York from out of state, the feds charged today.
The 12 defendants — including five active-duty officers NYPD officers based in Brooklyn — were busted this morning on charges including conspiracy to transport firearms and conspiracy to transport and receive stolen merchandise.
The weapons included M-16 assault rifles and handguns, some of which had “obliterated” serial numbers, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
All of the firearms had been rendered inoperable, however, as part of an elaborate sting operation to snare the allegedly crooked cops.
“Our city has lost too many people – and too many police officers – to criminals who buy guns illegally, including Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews, who were killed trying to take illegal guns off the street in 2003,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Our administration is taking every possible step to crack down on illegal guns and continue making the safest big city in the country even safer.
“The NYPD is the finest police department in the world, and these arrests do nothing to diminish the selfless commitment of the 35,000 men and women who put on a uniform every day, and who put their lives on the line to keep us safe.”
The early-morning arrests capped an undercover investigation that began in late 2009 after an FBI informant was introduced to one cop — William Masso of the 68th Precinct station house — “as a person who could ‘fix’ the [informant’s] traffic tickets,” the court papers say.
But a law-enforcement official told The Post that the probe was “totally unrelated” to the massive NYPD ticket-fixing scandal currently under investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Sources have said that a grand jury has voted indictments against at least 17 cops in that case.
In addition to Masso, the other active-duty cops named in today’s federal complaint are Eddie Goris and John Mahoney, also of the 68th Precinct; Ali Oklu of the Brooklyn South Task Force; and Gary Ortiz of the 71st Precinct station house.
Three retirees from the 68th — Joseph Trischitta, Marco Venezia and Richard Melnik — and former Sanitation Police officer Anthony Santiago were also arrested, along with New Jersey Corrections Officer David Kanwisher and two friends of Santiago’s, Michael Gee and Eric Gomer.
The NYPD released a statement saying, “Four other officers who had contact with Masso but who were neither named in the complaint nor arrested have been placed on modified assignment as the Internal Affairs Bureau looks more closely at Masso to see if there were any indicators of misconduct before his involvement in this case.”
Law enforcement officials said that In a March 2011 meeting with the ring, Masso said they should carry their police badges and if stopped say they were cops working off-duty to deliver items purchased at auction.
Masso told an informant in July that a shotgun he had provide was just a “sample” and that he could get anything “from A to Z,” officials said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, dealing with latest stain on the NYPD’s reputation, said Masso represents “a betrayal of the highest order of an officer’s oath.”
“These crimes are without question, reprehensible – particularly conspiring to import untraceable guns and assault rifles into New York. The public trusts the police not only to enforce the law, but to obey it,” added the FBI’s New York Assistant Director Janice Fedarcyk.
“These crimes, as alleged in the complaint, do nothing but undermine public trust and confidence in law enforcement. We are committed to continuing to work with the Internal Affairs Bureau of the NYPD to root out corruption, wherever it may be.”