NY School Security Guard Charged in Quadruple Homicide
Westchester NY June 2 2017 A school security guard who lives in Rockland and works in Westchester has been arrested and charged in connection to a quadruple homicide that had previously been tied to former Briarcliff Manor police officer turned drug conspirator Nicholas Tartaglione.
Joon Kim, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced on Thursday the arrest of Nanuet resident Joseph Biggs, who was charged in a 17-count indictment along with Tartaglione, for their participation in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and four alleged murders.
Kim said Biggs worked as a security guard at a school in Hastings-on-Hudson, where he was arrested by the FBI.
The new indictment includes additional firearms and kidnapping charges against both men.
Tartaglione, who was arrested in December and pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, is now facing an additional 12 additional firearms and kidnapping charges. He has been in federal custody since his arrest.
“Murders are always frightening, but when allegedly committed by people entrusted with the safety of others, it is all the more disturbing,” US Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement.
Biggs and Tartaglione planned to sell at least 5 kilograms of cocaine from June 2015 to April 2016, according to the 17-count indictment filed in federal court in White Plains on Thursday.
The duo allegedly lured Martin Luna to a Chester, New York, bar called Likquid Lounge on April 11, 2016, Kim said. He came with three other men — Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez.
All four were held captive, shot and killed, the indictment says.
Their bodies were dug up eight months later on an Otisville property where Tartaglione had lived.
Biggs and Tartaglione could face life in prison or the death penalty. They’re both due back in federal court on June 7.
