FLORIDA
A former ICE special agent plead guilty Thursday to accepting bribes in exchange for securing the dismissal of a drug trafficking indictment filed against a Colombian cocaine trafficker, federal officials announced.
Christopher V. Ciccione II will be sentenced on Feb. 9 in federal court in Florida.
According to admissions in his plea agreement, Ciccione, 52, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, accepted cash and other things of value and used his official position to cause a drug trafficking indictment against Colombian Jose Bayron Piedrahita Ceballos to be dismissed and to obtain official authorization for Piedrahita and his family to enter the United States, officials said.
Piedrahita and Colombian national Juan Carlos Velasco Cano, 49, gave Ciccione approximately $20,000 in cash, as well as dinner, drinks and prostitution during an extended hotel stay in Bogota, Colombia, in exchange for official acts that resulted in the dismissal of the indictment against Piedrahita.
Velasco, who previously pleaded guilty, served as the intermediary between Ciccione and Piedrahita, according to authority.
Ciccione admitted that he misled the U.S. Attorney’s Office and HSI management and altered law enforcement records to represent to decision makers that Piedrahita was a “former” suspect in a closed investigation, rather than a “current” subject, who was “never positively identified” and that his case should be dismissed— all while maintaining contact with Piedrahita.
Ciccone also falsified the concurrence of several other federal agents and attempted to parole Piedrahita into the United States.
Piedrahita is currently incarcerated in Colombia.