New York Daily News – by JOHN MARZULLI
A NYPD cop and two goons — including a reputed gangster who was involved in a fatal stabbing of a groom-to-be — were arrested Tuesday with extorting monthly “protection” payments from an Albanian restaurant in Queens, federal authorities said.
The cop, Besnik Llakatura, conspired to shake down the restaurant owner with Llakatura playing the role of the good cop with the victim who was his friend, authorities said.
The restaurant owner went to Llakatura, a friend, and asked what he should do. Lakatura advised the restaurant owner from reporting the extortion telling him he had no choice but to make the payments, authorities said.
The victim shelled out $24,000 over five months for the phony protection.
In a phone call intercepted by the feds, Llakatura jokingly referred to how he “taxes” local businesses, according to court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Also charged were Redinel Dervishaj — who allegedly warned the victim that he had to pay up because he had opened the restaurant in “our neighborhood” — and Denis Nikolla who allegedly menaced the victim at gunpoint when he initially refused their threats.
“The defendants told their victims they offered ‘protection’ but in reality they peddled fear and intimidation through the Albanian community,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.
Llakatura, 34, has been suspended from the force. He was assigned to the 120th Precinct in Staten Island and has been on the job for seven years.
Llakatura, who is married, is also suspected of stalking a mistress, prosecutors said. When she tried to break off their relationship and report him to the police, the feds intercepted a call in which the cop ordered his wife to get rid of a stash of guns he kept in a linen closet and dump them in the woods.
He is a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed this year alleging he and four other officers pummeled a black motorist and fractured his arm in 2010.
Dervishaj was cleared by a Staten Island grand jury of murder charges last year in the fatal stabbing of groom-to-be Antonio Lacertosa at an engagement party.
Dervishaj even boasted about Lacertosa’s death, warning the restaurant owner to “look him up” on the Internet if he didn’t know who he was, court papers state.
The terrible trio will be arraigned on the federal indictment Tuesday afternoon.
They face up to 27 years in prison if convicted.