Prosecutors agree to drop bribery charges against Coral Gables defense lawyer

A Coral Gables criminal defense attorney won’t face trial on charges of bribing a veteran federal agent in a scheme to obtain confidential information about drug-trafficking suspects to recruit them as potential clients for his law firm.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors agreed to drop charges against David Macey, 54, without providing an explanation at a court hearing in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said the criminal charges against Macey will be dismissed in a year as long as he does not break any laws, according to a deferred prosecution agreement announced in court, the Associated Press reported. The agreement was not filed in the court record.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Reardon said the agreement allowing Macey to avoid trial was an “extraordinary opportunity,” as she credited the work of his seasoned legal team headed by New York defense lawyer David Patton.

Outside the courthouse, according to the AP, Macey embraced his attorneys with a grin and said: “I feel great. I’m elated.”

His deal with the prosecutors — a rare occurrence in federal court — seemed to bring to an end one of the most glaring bribery scandals in recent Drug Enforcement Administration history, involving two convicted former DEA agents who had worked most of their careers in South Florida.

In February, Macey was charged with a conspiracy to bribe DEA agent John Costanzo Jr., while using a retired agency colleague and a Coral Gables police detective as intermediaries in the alleged corruption scheme to provide confidential information and defendants to the Gables lawyer, according to an indictment. The four-count indictment accused the lawyer of “using methods designed to conceal Macey’s own connection to the bribe payments.”

But in recent court papers, Macey’s defense team moved to dismiss the indictment. His lawyers acknowledged that Costanzo ended up receiving about $73,000 in cash bribes and gifts, but they denied that Macey ever asked the veterran DEA agent for anything. In other words, they argued, there was no quid pro quo — therefore, no wrongdoing. They described Costanzo as Macey’s “good friend” with whom he socialized.

At a 2023 trial that was a precursor to the Macey case, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Costanzo, who had worked as a supervisor in the DEA’s Miami office, and Manuel Recio, who retired from the DEA in 2018 as an assistant special agent in the Miami office, of conspiracy, bribery and other charges. After his retirement, Recio worked as a private investigator for Macey and other South Florida defense attorneys.

Costanzo, 51, was sentenced to four years in prison and Recio, 57, to three years in the bribery scheme that played out in South Florida and New York between October 2018 and January 2020.

The indictment charging Macey alleged that Costanzo provided Recio and the lawyer “with the identities of individuals who were expected to be charged in confidential grand jury proceedings, the anticipated timing of indictments and arrests, and the identities of individuals who had been arrested before information regarding those arrests became publicly available.”

In addition, longtime Coral Gables police officer Edwin Pagan III, a deputized DEA agent, was charged last November with playing a supporting role in the conspiracy to bribe Costanzo with tens of thousands of dollars for access to confidential information about drug-trafficking suspects. Pagan still faces trial in Manhattan federal court.

The secret intelligence was then passed on to Recio, so he could share it with Macey in the scheme to recruit potential defendants as new clients, according to the indictment.

Pagan, who pleaded not guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges, was suspended from his patrol officer’s job without pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation, according to the Coral Gables Police Department. As part of the corruption case, he’s also charged with perjury stemming from making “false statements” during his testimony in the federal trial that ended with the convictions of the two former DEA agents.

According to court records and trial evidence, this is how the bribery scheme unfolded in the Miami and New York City metro areas:

Upon his retirement from the DEA in November 2018, Recio began operating a Miami private investigative service, Global Legal Consulting LLC, that catered to South Florida defense attorneys including Macey and also helped them recruit clients. According to court records, Recio agreed to bribe Costanzo, who was the DEA supervisor in Miami, in exchange for his providing the private investigator with confidential information about narcotics investigations.

Costanzo gave Recio information about sealed indictments and secret investigations, including the identities of suspects and the anticipated timing of their arrests, according to court records. Costanzo also shared intelligence from the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System (NADDIS), a DEA database that contains information about targets under investigation. Recio paid Costanzo for this information, which in turn Recio used to help recruit new clients for Macey, according to court records.

Recio paid Costanzo $2,500 in November 2018, shortly after Recio’s retirement from the DEA in Miami, records show. The payment was funneled to Costanzo through a company owned by a close family member. At the same time, Recio began asking Costanzo to run searches in the DEA database on drug-trafficking targets and investigations.

Soon after, Pagan, who has a black belt in jujitsu and runs a defense training business, JEM Solutions, entered the picture. On Jan. 17, 2019, the Coral Gables cop, who was working as DEA task force officer, reached out to Macey by text message to attend a meeting at a Coral Gables restaurant with him, Costanzo and Recio, according to the indictment charging Pagan and Macey.

Less than two hours before the restaurant meeting that same day, Pagan withdrew a $50,000 cashier’s check from a bank located within walking distance of the establishment, the indictment says.

The check was made out to a “close family member” of Costanzo’s — the Miami Herald has learned the recipient was his father, a retired DEA agent not charged in the bribery case. But Costanzo used the money toward a down payment on a condominium purchase, the indictment says. Costanzo then “misrepresented” the source of the $50,000 payment to his mortgage broker.

Twelve days later, on Jan. 29, 2019, Pagan and Costanzo discussed via text the creation of a shell company that Pagan “would use to funnel benefits” to Costanzo to keep the bribery scheme going, according to the indictment. On Feb. 14, 2019, Pagan established a bank account in the name of the shell company to “funnel funds” to Costanzo. That same day, Pagan sent the username and password for the shell company to Costanzo via electronic message.

According to the indictment, Recio wrote a check for $10,000 from his investigations company to the shell company in April 2019, and Recio wrote another check for $10,750 in the same manner in June 2019 — all for Costanzo’s benefit in exchange for DEA confidential information on drug-trafficking suspects.

During the course of the bribery scheme, Macey made plans to travel with Costanzo to New York City on April 16, 2019. It would be Macey’s treat, as he paid the bill for an expensive dinner and tickets to a New York Yankees game, according to the indictment.

Before the Yankees game, Macey exchanged text messages in which he told Costanzo that he had bought the tickets to the game “so that [the DEA supervisor] would not be disappointed,” the indictment says. “During the game, [Costanzo] sent electronic messages containing pictures from the Yankees game to [Recio].”