A former New York City police detective who helped a crew of thieves targeting Asian-American business owners is headed to prison for more than six years.
Saul Arismendy De La Cruz was sentenced in White Plains federal court Friday, May 29, to 75 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Nelson Roman, who also ordered the ex-cop to serve three years of post-release supervision, forfeit $100,000 he had received in cash, jewelry and other items and pay $219,459 in restitution.
De La Cruz, 33, of Queens, was arrested in November 2023 on an indictment charging him with participating in a racketeering conspiracy. He was accused of accepting bribes from the robbery crew that included two of his relatives in exchange for providing confidential police information about potential victims and ongoing investigations.
He pleaded guilty in September 2025.
“The NYPD is the greatest police department in the world,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a news release announcing the sentence. “Yet Saul Arismendy De La Cruz betrayed his colleagues and the New Yorkers he was sworn to protect. His selfish crimes cannot tarnish the NYPD but must be met with justice as they were today.”
The crew was organized by Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez and between 2017 and 2022 committed home invasion robberies, mostly targeting Asian-American small business owners.
More than a decade ago, Soto-Ramirez was convicted in Virginia of similar conduct but absconded while on supervised release in 2017. According to prosecutors, he used a stolen identity to hide out in New York City while participating in robberies in the region. He remains at large, prosecutors contend, because De La Cruz tipped him off that the FBI was getting ready to arrest him after learning his real identity.
De La Cruz, who joined the NYPD in 2014, worked in the 100th Precinct in Far Rockway, Queens. He was promoted to detective in 2021. According to prosecutors, he would help the crew by monitoring 911 calls during robberies, searching NYPD databases to find information about investigations into the crew’s activities and running license plates of the cars the thieves would use to ensure they had not been reported stolen so that police wouldn’t already be on the lookout for them.
In a letter to the judge, De La Cruz expressed “deep regret and shame” for his crimes and how difficult separation from his family, particularly his three young sons, will be.
“Becoming a Police Officer and later a Detective was my dream since childhood, and through myown poor decisions, I violated the oath I took when I joined the department in 2014,” he wrote. “That reality weighs heavily on me every day. This case has forced me to confront the consequences of my actions and the damage I caused to my family, the victims, my profession, and my community. I understand that my actions require accountability and that justice must be served.”
De La Cruz’s sentence was roughly the midway point between the 4 years requested by his lawyer Howard Tanner and the guideline sentence of between 9 and 11 1/4 years that prosecutors sought. Roman was required to consider the guideline but was not bound by it.
Tanner cited his client’s lack of criminal history, remorse and limited hands-on role in the robberies in asking for considerably less than the guideline sentence.
But prosecutors Ben Arad, Jeffrey Coffman and T. Josiah Pertz countered that while De La Cruz may not have been present at any of the robberies or engaged in any violence his actions allowed the robbery crew to thrive. They cited how he once called himself a “dirty cop” to one of his co-conspirators.
“He was not an entry-level officer who was paid to look the other way for a minor offense, as serious as that would have been,” they said in their sentencing memo. “He was willing to abandon his calling to help violent robbers target victims and escape consequences so they could strike again, because they paid him money.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Ex-NYPD detective sentenced to federal prison for aiding robbery crew
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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