Former Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy Niko Irizarry, 25, is accused of attempting to frame an unidentified man of a crime in exchange for unspecified sexual favors. Irizarry is one alleged culprit in what appears to be a wider scheme to target an innocent man as part of a revenge plot.
The Florida deputy is accused of engaging in a drug planting conspiracy.
Irizarry was arrested on Friday and charged with felony official misconduct — the same day he was placed on leave, according to Sheriff Carmine Marceno. RELATED: Ex-Police Officer Sentenced After Murdering Daughter’s Boyfriend & Leaving Her In A Homeless Shelter Irizarry arrested the victim of the alleged revenge plot on December 16th on narcotics charges, Marceno said at a news conference Friday. Sometime after the arrest, while the victim was still in police custody, internal affairs received a complaint that led them to believe that the arrest made by Irizarry was unlawful, prompting an investigation into the matter.
Deputy Niko Irizarry allegedly conspired with other men to frame the victim.
The investigation uncovered a conspiracy that was allegedly conceptualized with two other men, Charles Custodio and Scott Snider, in order to frame the victim and send him to jail because Custodio “had a personal hatred” for the victim. According to the investigation, 37-year-old Custodio reached out to Irizarry, looking to seek vengeance on the unidentified victim, and promised him unspecified sexual favors along with a vacation to Paris if he assisted in the fentanyl-planting scheme. Then, Custodio allegedly contacted the third man, 29-year-old Snider, who had the role of planting the synthetic opioid in his enemy’s car. According to Marceno, Custodio was said to have obtained a large number of drugs and given them to Snider, who then posed as a real estate client and met up with the victim, who worked as a real estate broker. At some point during the meeting, Snider was able to plant the drugs, allowing Custodio the opportunity to call Irizarry and give him the victim’s location so he could perform a traffic stop, the investigation alleges. RELATED: Woman Believes She May Have Captured Video Of Police Planting Evidence In Someone’s Car During Arrest The victim was arrested on the narcotics charges near Fort Meyer and was placed in police custody, but internal affairs had other plans. “The task force conducted a thorough investigation revealing an elaborate conspiracy to plant illegal drugs in the victim’s vehicle and arrange for a traffic stop on that vehicle after the drugs were planted," Marceno said. “The task force utilized state-of-the-art technology … to reveal the true names of those involved to identify and access bogus email accounts and text messages.”
Irizarry and Custodio were arrested in Lee County, and Snider was arrested in Texas, according to authorities.
Custodio and Snider were both charged with trafficking in fentanyl, possession of a controlled substance, and conspiracy, while Irizarry was also charged with falsifying an official document, the sheriff said. “Nobody is above the law, and that includes our deputies,” Marceno said Friday. Marceno did not reveal whether or not Irizarry had ever been compensated with the sexual favors and Parisian vacation that were promised. According to the sheriff, Irizarry had been on the force for four years, joining in 2018 — moving at one point to another agency before returning in 2020. He did not have any previous disciplinary actions with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. RELATED: Dashcam Footage Released Of Cops Pushing A Woman Under Her Car And Probing Her For 11 Minutes Because They Thought They Smelled Marijuana Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.
