{"id":22940,"date":"2016-04-28T12:27:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T19:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=22940"},"modified":"2016-04-28T12:27:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T19:27:57","slug":"defendant-convicted-federal-court-extorting-business-owners-help-crooked-cop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=22940","title":{"rendered":"Defendant Convicted in Federal Court for Extorting Business Owners with Help from Crooked Cop"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Courtroom\"Redinel Dervishaj<\/strong> and his co-defendants, including a former New York City police officer, extorted a Queens restaurant owner shortly after he opened his business, demanding regular payments in exchange for so-called protection and threatening him with physical violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, a federal jury convicted Dervishaj, 40, following a two and a half week trial of Hobbs Act extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion, threatening\/committing physical violence in furtherance of an extortion plan, and related charges involving brandishing firearms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The charges arose out of the defendant\u2019s schemes to extort three small business owners in Queens, New York. \u00a0Dervishaj is facing up to life in prison when he is sentenced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Redinel
Redinel Dervishaj<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Co-defendants Besnik Llakatura<\/strong>, a police officer with the New York City Police Department during the charged crimes, and Denis Nikolla<\/strong> previously plead guilty in this case. They are awaiting sentencing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThrough fear, intimidation and threats of violence, Dervishaj and his co-defendants demanded payment from local business owners in Astoria, Queens, for so-called protection,\u201d stated U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the victims refused to pay, the defendants escalated their efforts to secure payment, brazenly threatening the business owners with firearms. \u00a0(Monday), Dervishaj was held accountable for the harm he caused and the fear he engendered.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court evidence, this is what happened:<\/span><\/p>\n

Between May and November 2013, Dervishaj, of Queens, and his co-defendants conspired and attempted to extort a Queens restaurant owner, demanding regular payments in exchange for so-called protection.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The extortion began shortly after the victim opened a restaurant in Astoria when he was visited by Dervishaj and told that he had opened a business in \u201cour neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, the restaurant owner was required to pay Dervishaj $4,000 per month.\u00a0 He then sought help from Besnik Llakatura, whom the restaurant owner believed was his friend.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to him, Llakatura, an NYPD officer in Staten Island since 2006, was conspiring with Dervishaj in the extortion and actively discouraged the restaurant owner from going to the police.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"NewLlakatura sought to persuade the victim that he had no choice but to make the demanded payments, warning him that Dervishaj and his associates would physically harm him if he did not pay.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

When the victim resisted, at Dervishaj\u2019s direction co-conspirator Denis Nikolla threatened the victim with physical violence and chased him at gunpoint down a street in Queens.\u00a0 Over the course of five months, each of the three defendants took turns collecting monthly payments from the victim, ultimately collecting $24,000 in so-called protection money.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between April 2012 and November 2013, Dervishaj and Nikolla also conspired and attempted to extort the proceeds of two nightclubs located in Queens, New York, and used a firearm in their efforts to do so. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the nightclub owner failed to make the demanded payments, on September 20, 2012, Dervishaj and Nikolla confronted the victim at a bar in Astoria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikolla took a firearm from Dervishaj\u2019s waistband and pressed it to the victim\u2019s ribs, threatening to beat him in front of his wife and children and, threatening to beat his wife and children in front of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, during 2013, Dervishaj and his co-defendants conspired and attempted to extort a proprietor of two social clubs in Astoria.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

After the initial extortion demand, the proprietor refused to make the payments and ceased going to his social clubs out of fear for his safety.\u00a0 Thereafter, the defendants attempted to locate the proprietor and threaten him.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In one instance, Dervishaj threatened and repeatedly punched a friend of the victim, while a co-conspirator pulled a gun on him.\u00a0 The victim ultimately fled the country for a period of time to avoid the defendants\u2019 threats.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New York Daily News<\/strong><\/a> reported that Llakatura, 34, has been suspended from the force. He was assigned to the 120th Precinct in Staten Island and has been on the job for seven years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Llakatura, who is married with two young children, is also suspected of stalking a mistress, prosecutors said. When she tried to break off their relationship and report him to the police, the feds intercepted a call in which the cop ordered his wife to get rid of a stash of guns he kept in a linen closet and dump them in the woods, according to the New York Daily News.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed this year alleging he and four other officers pummeled a black motorist and fractured his arm in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cop’s neighbor on Jefferson Ave. in Staten Island told New York Daily News reporter that he recalled a bizarre incident involving Llakatura during Hurricane Sandy last year. “He used his gun to get attention from the policemen,” the neighbor told The Daily News. “He was shooting it up in the sky because it was an emergency, the water was coming up very high.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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(2013 TV News Report)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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