Authorities in New York say a fellow law enforcement officer has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband and a child.
According to WNBC, 34-year-old Valerie Cincinelli is accused of approaching her boyfriend to find someone willing to murder her ex.
One source told the network that she also wanted the hitman to target a child identified by investigators as the boyfriend’s teen daughter.
A federal sting operation focused on the suspect, who had reportedly worked as a police officer out of the New York Police Department’s 106th Precinct in Queens. Records indicate a complaint regarding an unrelated incident led to her being placed on modified assignment about two years ago, as reported by Newsday.
Police reports indicate she allegedly took $7,000 out of a bank account in February with the intention of giving it to her boyfriend who would use it as payment for the homicides. Cellphone communications during this period document further development of her deadly plans, according to a criminal complaint.
A few months later, investigators believe Cincinelli provided more specific instructions to her boyfriend, telling him that she wanted the female victim killed “over the weekend” and for the hitman to “wait a week or a month to kill John Doe.”
It was on Friday morning that a Suffolk County police detective arrived at her home to tell her her ex-husband had been killed. Cincinelli reportedly believed the story, which was devised as part of the FBI operation. She allegedly soon began talking to her boyfriend, who was cooperating with authorities and wearing a wire, about how to establish an alibi.
Shortly after the detective left, Cincinelli’s boyfriend reportedly received a test message from someone identified as the hitman, along with images of the fake murder scene. The FBI agent writing the messages reportedly included a demand for $3,000 in order to carry out the hit on the teen girl.
Police say the suspect then instructed her boyfriend to destroy the evidence by deleting his text messages.
The one-time “cop of the month” — as awarded by the Rotary Club of Jamaica — was arrested on Friday and locked up without bail.
[Featured image: Valerie Cincinelli, Facebook]
