By Murray Weiss and Adam Miller
New York Post

 

The two rogue NYPD detectives at the center of the department's worst corruption scandal in a decade were arraigned yesterday on new charges stemming from what prosecutors call their long and lucrative drug rip-off scheme.

Disgraced former detectives Julio Vasquez and Thomas Rachko, accused of raking in more than $2 million in phony drug busts since 1988, pleaded not guilty to money laundering, narcotics conspiracy and additional charges of lying to federal agents.

The former partners were busted Thanksgiving Day last year after allegedly stealing $169,000 from a drug money courier in Queens. They originally were charged with lying to the feds.

Investigators have seized $744,370 in ill-gotten gains from a Brooklyn storage locker rented by Vasquez.

The crooked cops, cooperating with the feds, have implicated up to 10 active and former officers in what has become the largest NYPD corruption case since 30 cops from Harlem's 30th Precinct were accused of stealing drugs and cash in 1994. But sources told The Post the allegations against several of the cops - all of whom are now retired - is based on secondhand hearsay.

Lawyers for Rachko, 45, and Vasquez, 43, said yesterday the men had not been offered plea deals.

Prosecutors say that for years Rachko and Vasquez - both of whom had worked on narcotics cases - were robbing dealers and reselling the drugs through confidential informants with whom they were in cahoots.

In their biggest single "bust," feds say the dirty detectives pocketed about $200,000. They seized drugs from Washington Heights dealers and resold them through another seller.

Rachko, a degenerate gambler, blew his share of the dirty money - $800,000 - at the racetrack, sources said.

"This is a tragic day for Tom Rachko, obviously, and also a tragic day for the NYPD," his lawyer, Jeffrey Lichman, said outside Brooklyn federal court after the arraignments.

Vasquez, who had been assigned to the NYPD's firearms investigation, resigned shortly after charges were filed.

Rachko retired from the force.

Christian Joel Hernandez, the alleged courier in the Thanksgiving  Day "bust," was also arraigned yesterday on money laundering and narcotics conspiracy charges.

His lawyer, Dawn Florio, said Hernandez was a bit player in a case that could lead to the arrests of a large number of dirty cops.

"This thing is going to mushroom," she said.

"If my client had to be arrested, at lest he's going to bring down a lot of Police Officers."