Federal guard in Manhattan accused of smuggling booze to inmate

A guard at the federal jail in Manhattan was charged Thursday with taking $45,000 in bribes to smuggle alcohol and contraband to an unnamed inmate who matched the description of Reza Zarrab, the Turkish gold trader who masterminded an Iranian sanctions-busting scheme.

Zarrab, who became the government’s star witness in the trial last year of a Turkish banker that embarrassed the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, testified at trial that he had a Turkish lawyer bribe a Metropolitan Correctional Center guard to smuggle perks into his cell.

The guard was not named, but Thursday’s charges accused federal correction officer Victor Casado, 35, of the Bronx, with taking payoffs from two inmates — one of whom cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to violate Iran sanctions.

Casado’s court-appointed lawyer John Diaz said the complaint pointed at Zarrab. “It appears he is one of them,” Diaz said.

The charges said the bribes were paid in cash or by wire transfer by a lawyer or a driver for the lawyer for that inmate. Casado allegedly smuggled in alcohol in plastic bottles, shuttled cellphones in and out for the inmate, and also brought Vitamin C, pain medication, Dayquil and food.

The inmate, according to the charges, told officials his lawyer communicated with Casado through WhatsApp, and said he had also paid other prisoners to aid in the scheme. Zarrab was a multimillionaire, according to testimony at the sanctions trial.

At a brief court hearing, prosecutors said Casado is still employed by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. He was held on a $200,000 bond, which has to be secured by his house and co-signed by his mother and two other financially responsible parties before his release. He will be on a curfew.

Diaz declined to comment on the charges, and officials at the Metropolitan Correctional Center did not respond to an email.