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A former Port Authority police recruit who also managed professional

boxers in New Jersey was sentenced today to 75 months in prison for conspiring with a

detective-sergeant in the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department to distribute significant

quantities of cocaine that had been stolen from the Sheriff’s Department evidence vault,

Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced.

U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares ordered Henry Cortes, 35, of Mahwah, to report to the

federal Bureau of Prisons on Sept. 10 to begin serving his prison sentence.

Cortes pleaded guilty on Feb. 26, and admitted before Judge Linares that he conspired

with Alan Souto, then a detective-sergeant in the Sheriff’s Department and a former

member of the Haledon Borough council, to steal and later sell the drugs from the

evidence vault. Souto pleaded guilty on Dec. 4 and stipulated in his plea agreement that

the amount of stolen drugs was at least 43 kilograms (94.6 pounds) of cocaine and 700

grams of heroin. Cortes stipulated to those same amounts in his plea agreement.

On May 18, Judge Linares sentenced Souto to 85 months in federal prison.

Cortes pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent

to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Cortes said the conspiracy spanned at

least from about August 2007 to July 2008, during which time he was a probationary

police recruit with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as well as a

professional boxing manager in New Jersey.

Cortes admitted that he arranged with Souto to hide the stolen drugs at a vacant property

Cortes owned in Haledon. He said he had told Souto in advance where to find hidden

keys to access the property. Cortes said another co-conspirator would then retrieve the

drugs and sell them to various individuals in Passaic County.

After the drugs were sold, Cortes and Souto took shares of the proceeds, and Cortes said

he received more than $200,000 for his involvement in the conspiracy.

"Cortes’ conduct was disgraceful, particularly considering that he aspired to be in law

enforcement," said Marra. "The sentence is appropriately long and fits the crime."

Marra credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge

Weysan Dun, for the investigation of Souto. He also credited for their assistance in the

investigation prosecutors and investigators with the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office,

under the direction of Prosecutor James F. Avigliano, and investigators with the Passaic

County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction of Sheriff Jerry Speziale, and

investigators with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Gramiccioni of

the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division.

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