FBI tapes have cop planning drug rip-off

Federal prosecutors played damning tapes for a jury yesterday of intercepted phone calls and wire recordings in which reputed drug dealer Zachary Young and ex-Philly cop Mark Williams are heard planning to use Philadelphia police officers to rip off a heroin dealer.

The plot was carried out on May 14, 2010, when then-officers James Venziale and Williams, while on duty and in uniform, made a bogus police stop of Angel Ortiz, an admitted drug dealer who had secured 300 grams of heroin from his supplier's courier. Jurors also saw video of the sham traffic stop and arrest.

Undercover DEA agent Randy Sampson, who spent almost the entire day being questioned by the prosecution, was only briefly cross-examined by Young's attorney, Anna Durbin.

Durbin drew the ire of Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen McCartney by twice suggesting that prosecutors played only the most incriminating portions of the tapes.

Earlier, Sampson testified that he had been introduced to Young as convicted money-launderer Matt McCue.

Sampson testified that he was investigating drug dealers but that last April, Young told him of a plan to use cops to pull over Ortiz and rip off one of his heroin suppliers.

Authorities obtained court-authorized wiretaps of Young's phone, two of Ortiz's phones and co-defendant Christal Snyder's phone. (She is the wife of former police officer Robert Snyder. They and four other defendants in the case, including Venziale and Ortiz, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.)

For much of yesterday, Sampson's testimony was overshadowed by the tapes, which showed Young and Williams to be ready, willing and able co-conspirators.

The tapes revealed that the sham traffic stop and arrest of Ortiz were delayed several times because the ex-cops were wary of Sampson, whom they knew only as McCue, the purported money-launderer. The tapes showed that the cops wanted to check McCue's driver's license before joining the plot.

Eventually, a face-to-face meeting was arranged involving Sampson, Ortiz, Williams and Venziale, to discuss the plot.

At one point, as the plot is about to unfold, Ortiz says: "It's showtime." "Showtime," Williams replies.

After the rip-off occurred on May 14, Ortiz is overheard telling Young: "It's done, man." Young replies: "Good job, good job, man, I'm proud of you."

Williams and Snyder were enlisted to participate in a second scheme, authorities said, to steal from a man they believed to be a Mafia member with gambling proceeds but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

On the tapes, Williams is overheard planning the robbery with Ortiz and others, offering at one point to get a police wagon and wear his uniform if necessary. (At the time, he was on restricted duty and not supposed to wear a uniform or take police action.)

The robbery scheme, which would also have involved a bogus car stop, seizing the victim's money and later laundering it, was ultimately aborted by the feds.

Sampson said that when he told Williams the robbery wasn't going to happen, Williams was "very disappointed."