Former Baltimore police officer sentenced for drug conspiracy

BALTIMORE, MD—A former Baltimore police officer was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and oxycodone, prosecutors announced on Monday, July 1.

Steven Umberto Angelini, a Baltimore resident, was also sentenced for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Maryland announced in a news release.

Angelina joined the Baltimore Police Department in January 2022 and worked with a co-conspirator to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and oxycodone from January 2022 to May 2022, prosecutors said.

During the conspiracy, Angelini twice offered to go to the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit to get information about an investigation involving the co-conspirator’s supplier who was murdered, prosecutors said.

Angelina also gave the co-conspirator information about the case and some pictures of the case that were available to other Baltimore Police Department employees through mass email dissemination, prosecutors said.

According to his plea agreement, Angelini offered to buy a ghost gun, a privately made firearm, from the co-conspirator in exchange for cash and drugs.

In April 2022, Angelini gave 20 oxycodone pills to the co-conspirator, prosecutors said. Later that month, he texted the co-conspirator telling him that he was at a gun shop and wanted to buy cocaine from him.

Angelina also offered to buy ammunition and gun accessories from the co-conspirator in exchange for more cocaine, prosecutors said. He bought a magazine for the ghost gun that he sold to the co-conspirator later that night.

“Angelina admitted that in May 2022, after visiting a Rosedale, Maryland pain clinic and filling a prescription for oxycodone pills, he called Co-Conspirator 1 and notified him that he had the pills available for sale,” prosecutors said. “They negotiated that Co-Conspirator 1 would give Angelini cash and cocaine in exchange for the oxycodone.”

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI, HSI and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Goo, who prosecuted the case.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

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