Brooklyn NYPD Officer Allegedly Worked as Motel Pimp

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — An 11-year veteran of the NYPD has been charged with “transporting women in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn announced Wednesday.

Eduardo Conejo, 33, previously worked as a police officer in the 79th Precinct in Bed-Stuy. He was then placed on “modified assignment.”

After work, though, he would allegedly moonlight as a motel pimp, ”transporting at least ten different prostitutes he employed to motels throughout the New York metropolitan area, including parts of Long Island and New Jersey,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release.

FBI investigators wiretapped Cornejo discussing his methods of splitting profits with his prostitutes, according to the prosecution.

In another phone conversation inside his car, Cornejo allegedly said that if he were to stand outside a motel door with “a bunch of girls,” law enforcement would “know what’s up real quick.”

The investigation into Cornejo’s alleged side job began after the NYPD received an anonymous tip in spring 2015.

From there, the FBI began tailing his vehicle.

On various evenings through summer and fall, FBI spies claimed they watched Cornejo picking up women from apartments in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, then driving them to hotels in Fort Lee and Seacaucus, New Jersey; East Meadow, Long Island; and the Bronx.

During a traffic stop in October, “female attire including thong underwear” was observed strewn around in Cornejo’s personal vehicle, according to the complaint against him.

Investigators also found what they believed to be profiles for a few of his girls online. Some of them were Facebook friends with each other, the complaint says, and some were featured in Backpage.com escort ads.

Cornejo was fired from the police force about two weeks ago, on Jan. 15 — reportedly for smoking weed.

Robert L. Capers, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Wednesday:

“As alleged, the defendant betrayed the trust of the residents of the city he swore to protect. Rather than seeking to eradicate crime from the streets of the city, the defendant promoted prostitution and profited from his exploitation of women.”