Federal authorities have charged a retired police officer with the murders of four men who have been missing since mid-April, PEOPLE confirms.
According to a statement from Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Nicholas Tartaglione, 49, was arrested on Monday for the murders and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Tartaglione previously served on the Briarcliff Manor, New York, police force. In recent months, he allegedly applied for positions open with the police department in Mount Vernon, New York, according a spokesperson for Bharara.
“While all murders tear at the fabric of our communities, when the alleged perpetrator of a gangland-style, quadruple homicide is a former police officer, that strikes at the heart of civilized society,” Bharara said in the statement.
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Bharara’s statement claims that in April, Tartaglione “participated in the senseless murder of four people in a bar in Chester, New York.” The four victims “had not been seen or heard from since the day of their alleged murder,” according to Bharara.
Tartaglione is accused in the killings of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez, who all disappeared on April 11.
The statement alleges investigators secured surveillance video from that day, which allegedly shows the four victims exiting a car outside a Chester diner in the same plaza as Likquid Lounge, a bar that is owned by Tartaglione’s brother.
Prosecutors believe Tartaglione murdered the four men inside the bar during a botched drug deal. According to Bharara’s statement, some of the victims “were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Authorities believe Tartaglione was meeting at least some of the men to either purchase or sell cocaine.
“The despicable acts of murder are more egregious in this case because the alleged murderer, a former police officer, once swore to serve and protect people from harm,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. in the statement. “The FBI Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force works day after day to battle the crimes that accompany the drug trade to keep criminals and their illegal actions from impacting innocent people.”
Four bodies believed to be the victims were found this week on property Tartaglione rents in Otisville, New York, reports The Journal News.
On Monday, Tartaglione appeared in federal court in White Plains, New York, after being charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, and four counts of murder in furtherance of a conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine. He entered a not guilty plea, according to The Journal News.
Tartaglione is being held on an unspecified amount of bail.
He faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life behind bars if convicted on the drug conspiracy charge. He faces a minimum of 20 years and the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison on each of the charges accusing him of murder in furtherance of the drug conspiracy.
Messages left for Tartaglione’s attorney were not returned Wednesday.
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