The cameras were rolling. Billy White had no idea. After weighing the risks of getting caught — or endangering the life of a supposed informant — he decided to grab the cash from the trunk of an “abandoned” car. He left behind a note in Spanish to cover his tracks, or so he thought.
Call it the “Estupido” Caper. It is an enlightening, and entertaining, highlight in an FBI agent’s stranger-than-fiction 57-page affidavit released Tuesday as White, head of the police department’s narcotics unit, was arrested on charges of accepting bribes and stealing cash. (Click here to read the full affidavit.)
The FBI conducted an elaborate sting of White after hearing charges about his alleged thefts. The “Estupido” Caper was one of them. It occurred on Jan. 31. Here’s what happened, according to the affidavit filed by FBI Agent James F. McGoey. The main characters are White and an undercover agent, from the state police, who was working alongside White.
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The FBI placed cash in the trunk of a car left on Long Wharf. The undercover agent told White that a female “informant” told him a drug dealer left it there with money stashed inside. The FBI, meanwhile, wired the car “for sound and for video.”
White asked the informant to pick him up. They drove to the car. “White was very concerned that the car could be seen by some cameras mounted on a nearby building, and that it was still daylight. White ultimately decided: ‘Hey, we can go open the trunk and see what’s in there, just put it back, and if you want to do it legit, do a fucking search warrant for the car.’”
In a subsequent search, White took out the paper bag planted with the $27,500 of cash inside. Discussions proceeded between White and the agent about whether the “informant” would get killed if the money disappeared. He suggested “mak[ing] it look like a break-in.” Eventually he took just $5,000 of the cash.
“After doing so, however, he said: ‘… you know, fuck it, we should have took the whole fucking thing…” He returned to the idea of making it look like a robbery. “White was concerned that, if he smashed the car window to make it look like a robbery, the police would respond and he might be chased.”
Later, after talking about returning for the money, White allegedly declared, “Fuck it, let’s go. Estupido on everybody, probably.” Still he wrestled with remorse about the implications for the female informant: “‘I don’t like her, man. That’s the only fucking thing I don’t like. If she wasn’t in this thing, sppppp, forget it.’”
They returned to the scene hours after having left it. “White then pulled a sweatshirt ‘hoodie’ over his head, and tied a scarf around his head, to cover his face and put on gloves. White went back to the car and stole the bag containing the rest of the Government funds.
“When back in the [undercover agent’s] car, White emptied the bag, White wrote ‘estupido’ on the money-bag, and White had the [informant] do the same. After concerns about whether his face could be seen, White put the empty bag back in the trunk.” Earlier, White had “made several phone calls to figure out how to spell ‘estupido.’”
One final thought White conveyed to the agent: “White again expressed concern about the near-by cameras and said: ‘I hope we’re not on film though, that’s the only thing.’ As was the case, all of the doings described above were captured on film by cameras hidden in the money-car as well as in the surrounding area.”