Former INS special agent framed in politically-motivated hit job turned defeat into the largest police defense non-profit in the US
For most of his career, Joseph Occhipinti, the man behind one of America’s largest police foundations, the National Police Defense Foundation, was not the one needing defense—he was the one delivering it. But in a startling twist of politics, power, and prosecution, the decorated federal agent who once helped take down cartel leaders and disrupt drug trafficking networks would become the first law enforcement officer in U.S. history to be federally charged with civil rights violations—despite no claims of brutality, racial bias, or corruption.
“I was successful. I made high-level arrests, seized record amounts of drugs, and worked directly with Rudy Giuliani when he was the U.S. Attorney,” he told Law Enforcement Today. “I never thought I’d become a target of my own government.”
His story begins in the gritty underworld of New York’s criminal corridors. At 21, he joined the U.S. Customs Service and quickly became known for his aggressive and effective investigations into organized crime, cargo theft, and smuggling. After transferring to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), he made a controversial move into a field many avoided: immigration-based organized crime.
“I focused on criminal aliens and became one of the leading experts in Dominican organized crime,” he explains. “Dominican gangs were the U.S. distributors in the United States for the Colombian cartels. That’s who I went after.”