Prosecutors suddenly drop case against Miami attorney accused of bribing
DEA agents
[August 29, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JOSHUA GOODMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have agreed to drop criminal charges against
a prominent Miami defense attorney accused of orchestrating a bribery
conspiracy involving two former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
supervisors who leaked confidential information.
Charges will be dismissed against David Macey in a year as long as he
does not break any laws, according to a deferred prosecution agreement
announced Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
Prosecutors offered no explanation for the sudden reversal. But Judge
Jennifer H. Rearden said the “extraordinary opportunity” for Macey to
avoid trial was in part the result of his experienced legal team.
“I feel great. I’m elated,” Macey said, grinning as he walked out of the
courthouse and embraced his attorneys.
The rare move would appear to bring an end to a multiyear investigation
into corruption inside the DEA that has resulted in the conviction of
two former agents. The probe recently widened to focus on Miami’s “white
powder bar,” high-priced defense lawyers who negotiate surrender deals
for Latin American drug traffickers by converting them into government
cooperators.
One of the most successful of those attorneys was Macey, a former state
prosecutor. In February, Macey, 54, was accused of lavishing two former
DEA agents with cash and gifts, including Yankees-Red Sox baseball
tickets and a down payment for a condo in suburban Coral Gables,
Florida, in exchange for sensitive information about the timing of
federal indictments and other leads that authorities said put cases and
investigators at risk.
Macey's attorneys don't deny payments and purchases totaling $73,000
ended up in the hands of the veteran lawman, John Costanzo, and a
retired DEA supervisor, Manny Recio, who was working as a private
investigator for Macey and other attorneys. However, they said Macey
made no specific ask of Costanzo, describing him as a “good friend” with
whom he shared meals, holidays and vacations.
“The indictment fails to allege any quid pro quo,” Macey's attorneys
said in a motion to dismiss the indictment earlier this month. “It
instead describes, at best, a formless arrangement of alleged payments
as quids (many entirely unlinked to Mr. Macey) and so-called ‘requests’
as quos with no apparent connection between them."
As part of the agreement announced Thursday, Macey acknowledged that his
financial transactions with Costanzo “created at minimum a risk of
perceived conflicts of interests." In a statement through his attorney,
Shawn Crowley, he said he was grateful the “government looked at the
facts and determined justice would not be served by continuing this
prosecution.”
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Prominent Miami defense attorney David Macey and his wife leave the
Manhattan federal court Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP
Photo/Jake Offenhartz)
It is unclear why the case against fell apart, and a spokesperson
for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment when
asked why it had dropped the prosecution. But the main prosecutor
who one handled the case, Sheb Swett, no longer works at the U.S.
Attorney Office. Meanwhile, a key informant who recorded
conversations with Recio and another Miami attorney has himself
since been indicted in Tampa, Florida, in an alleged plot to extort
major cocaine traffickers facing extradition from Colombia and the
Dominican Republic.
Macey has always denied wrongdoing. Recio and Costanzo were
sentenced to prison terms of three and four years respectively.
Their Manhattan trial followed a flurry of misconduct cases
involving other DEA agents accused of corruption and other federal
crimes.
Recio repeatedly asked Costanzo to search a confidential database
for investigations of interest to the attorneys he worked for,
including Macey, according to wiretapped phone calls that
prosecutors cited during the two lawmen's trial.
The two agents also discussed the timing of high-profile arrests and
charges, including for a man suspected of acting as an intermediary
for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Recio and Costanzo also discussed confidential DEA plans to arrest a
high-level trafficker in the Dominican Republic whom Macey was
trying to recruit as a client.
Defense attorneys said the government had no proof that Macey had
any knowledge of the DEA policy he allegedly induced Costanzo to
violate, nor the required intent.
The gifts and payments by Macey included a dinner in Manhattan’s
West Village for Costanzo, himself and another then-high-ranking DEA
official in Mexico.
The DEA agents relied on middlemen such as Costanzo’s now-deceased
father, a decorated DEA agent, to disguise payments, prosecutors
said. They also used sham invoices and a company listing its address
as a UPS store while deleting hundreds of messages and calls to a
burner phone, prosecutors said.
DEA task force officer Edwin Pagan was accused of being an
intermediary and faces a November trial on charges including bribery
and perjury. He has pleaded not guilty.
___
Goodman reported from Miami.
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