BUSTED: Wanda Abreu (above left) and her husband, former NYPD Officer José Ramos, appear in Bronx court yesterday to be arraigned on charges they arranged for the murder of an informant. (Pool photos)
BUSTED: Wanda Abreu (at left) and her husband, former NYPD Officer José Ramos (at right), appear in Bronx court yesterday to be arraigned on charges they arranged for the murder of an informant. (
)
The cop at the center of the Bronx ticket-fixing scandal plotted to rub out the key witness in the case — by hiring a hit man with money borrowed against his NYPD pension, prosecutors said yesterday.
José Ramos, a 17-year NYPD veteran, arranged the assassination from his Rikers jail cell with the help of his wife, Wanda Abreu, prosecutors said.
Ramos and Abreu, the parents of two young kids, pleaded not guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit murder and were carted off to Rikers Island.
Their alleged target was former friend Harry Mingo, a fixture in the Ramos family’s barbershop who gave Ramos high-end, stolen electronics in exchange for fixing tickets, sources told The Post.
Mingo, who has a criminal record, became an informant against Ramos in the sensational case that led to last October’s indictment of 16 cops.
“They need him. Without him, they have no case,” Ramos allegedly said of Mingo in one of several taped calls with his wife.
Abreu took out a loan against her hubby’s NYPD pension to finance the hit, according to Bronx prosecutor Omer Wiczyk.
“Go ahead. Do it! But do it right away,” Ramos allegedly told Abreu.
In May, Abreu, who runs a day-care business out of her home, allegedly set up a meeting to pay for the hit. But just before she was to hand over the dough, she balked, suspecting that she was under surveillance, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors would not say how much Ramos allegedly planned to pay the hit man.
The only thing the couple feared about their plan was being caught, Wiczyk said.
“He has sold his soul . . . Ramos and Abreu have no problems having an individual murdered. They just didn’t want to get their hands dirty,” Wiczyk said.
“It was critical for them not to be involved in the murder.”
Ramos, already cooling his heels at Rikers on $500,000 bail, was remanded by Judge Steven Barrett. Abreu joined him there, as Barrett set her bail at $500,000 bond or $100,000 cash.
Ramos’ lawyer, former Bronx prosecutor Dawn Florio, said, “We were totally blindsided by these charges.”
Ramos was under investigation for suspected drug activity in 2008 when he was caught on wiretaps talking about fixing tickets. The recordings touched off the wider probe.
The couple wanted the hit man to kill Mingo after Ramos made bail and they went to Texas, “giving them an alibi,” Wicyzk said.
Ramos tried several times to have his bail reduced since November 2011. That month, Mingo was told by prosecutors without explanation, to leave town for a while.
Mingo’s lawyer, Tom Kenniff, who declined to confirm that his client was a police informant, said he learned of the alleged death plot only yesterday.
“The DA knew about it for a protracted period of time, post-arrest of Mr. Ramos, and never notified me or my client, Mr Mingo,” Kenniff said.
“Although the DA’s office has assured me that my client was never in any danger, that’s something that we are in the process of investigating.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona