Former NYPD Officer Charged For Tipping Off Her Gang-Banger Boyfriend After He Killed A Rival Gang Member

A former New York City police officer living in Yorktown allegedly tipped off her gang-leader boyfriend about a grand jury investigation and helped him flee the country after he had murdered a rival gang member in the Bronx, according to a federal indictment.

Gina Mestre was part of the 52nd Precinct’s Public Safety Unit in 2020 and involved in an "intimate relationship" with Andrew “Caballo” Done when she started providing him with information about the federal probe into his gang, the Shooting Boys, according to the indictment. Late that summer, Mestre allegedly provided the name of a witness who was then beaten up to intimidate him from cooperating.

And on Nov. 5 that year, while part of the manhunt for Done after he had fatally shot the rival gang member, Angel Barreiro, as the victim sat in a car on Cromwell Avenue hours earlier, Mestre allegedly sent to his phone a copy of the surveillance video police obtained of the shooting. She continued to tip him off about the progress of the murder investigation in the ensuing weeks, allowing him to flee to the Dominican Republic.

Mestre, 33, was arrested Tuesday night and appeared Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, where she pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, conspiracy to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation and accessory to murder after the fact.

She was released on $250,000 bond. The racketeering and grand jury obstruction charges are the most serious and carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison. Her lawyer, Matthew Kluger, declined to comment.