Tag Archives: Bristol County Sheriff’s Deputy
Deputy sheriff convicted of ‘Codfather’ cash smuggling
A former Bay State sheriff’s deputy has been convicted in a cash-smuggling scheme connected to a New Bedford fishing mogul known as “The Codfather” during which he took thousands in profits from overfishing and deposited them into a Portuguese bank. Antonio Freitas, 47, of Taunton, a Bristol County sheriff’s deputy and a longtime Immigration and Customs Enforcement task-force officer, was convicted yesterday by a jury in U.S. District Court in Boston of one count of bulk cash smuggling and one count of structuring the export of U.S. currency. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 12 click here to read the story 08:07
“It came as a complete shock,” – Sheriff’s deputy charged with smuggling money in ‘Codfather’ case
A Bristol County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Monday and charged with smuggling thousands of dollars to Portugal for a New Bedford fishing mogul who was allegedly trying to hide his profits from illegal fish sales. Federal officials allege that Antonio M. Freitas, who was also a member of a Homeland Security task force, used his security clearance at Logan International Airport to sneak cash overseas. On Feb. 5, for instance, Freitas and his fiancee allegedly carried $17,500 in cash-filled bags past airport security and boarded a flight to Portugal. After he arrived, he allegedly deposited the money into a bank account owned by Carlos Rafael,,, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson called the indictment a “huge, huge disappointment” and said he would place Freitas on unpaid leave from his $57,000-a-year job. Read the rest here 07:09
Owner of Commercial Fishing Business and Local Sherrif’s Deputy Indicted in Scheme to Falsify Fishing Records
BOSTON – The owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the United States and a Bristol County Sheriff’s Deputy were charged in connection with a long-running scheme involving submitting falsified records to the federal government to evade federal fishing quotas and then smuggling the profits to Portugal. The federal indictment charging the two men was unsealed today after the arrest of the Sheriff’s Deputy. Carlos Rafael, 64, of Dartmouth, the owner of Carlos Seafood, Inc., was indicted on one count of conspiring to falsify reports submitted to the federal government, 25 counts of submitting falsified records and one count of bulk cash smuggling. Rafael was previously arrested on a criminal complaint filed in February 2016. Antonio Freitas, 46, of Taunton, a Sheriff’s Deputy with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, was indicted on one count of bulk cash smuggling and one count of structuring the export of U.S. currency. Freitas was arrested this morning and will appear today in U.S. District Court in Worcester. The charges arose out of an undercover investigation in which federal agents posed as organized crime figures interested in buying Carlos Seaford. Read the rest here 18:09
