Jerry Speziale is an American law enforcement officer who was previously the Sheriff of Passaic County, New Jersey. Speziale is currently the Deputy Superintendent of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.[1]During his law enforcement career he worked undercover in the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, assigned to a special group targeting the Cali Drug Cartel in Colombia, South America.[2]Speziale met Paul Lir Alexander, a high level informant that taught him the intricacies of the South American drug trade. Alexander introduced Speziale into the underworld of the cartel.[3]Speziale, Alexander and the members of his group, "Group 93" were able to infiltrate the infamous Cali Drug Cartel. In July 1992, he was responsible for capturing and arresting the largest Cali drug cartel leader ever prosecuted under New York State law.[4]Speziale captured the cartel boss in the Hilton Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland and extradited him back with the assistance of the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutors Office and United States Marshall Service. In the end, Speziale was ultimately betrayed by Alexander.[5][6][7]
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Speziale graduated from Wayne Hills High School in 1978. In 2003, he graduated from the University of Louisville’s Southern Police Institute, 37th Command Officers National Academy. In 2006, he graduated from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government for state and local government officials. In 2007, he graduated from the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development School. In 2008, he graduated, cum laude, from Caldwell College with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. He also received a M.A.S. Graduate Degree in Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2010. Speziale currently continues as an Adjunct Professor for Fairleigh Dickinson teaching leadership and criminal justice. Additionally, Speziale received an Honorary P.H.D. in Leadership from Yeshua University in Anaheim, California.[8]
Speziale was born in Paterson, New Jersey and raised in the suburban town of Wayne, New Jersey to Gerardo Speziale, a barber,[9] and Barbara Speziale, a paralegal for a municipal court judge. In 1985, Speziale married his childhood sweetheart, Maggie Reinhardt. Speziale is the father of Francesca, Jerry and Paige.
Speziale began his police career at the New York City Police Department as a patrol officer in the south Bronx. He was shot and wounded in 1986. In 1987, Speziale was assigned as an undercover officer to the NYPD’s Special Anti Crack Unit, a new unit designed to combat the scourge of crack in New York City in the late 1980s. In 1989, Speziale was promoted to Detective and assigned as a an undercover agent with United States Drug Enforcement Administration, where his career led him around the world conducting overseas drug smuggling operations and raids with the DEA. Speziale rose through the detective ranks and in 1997 retired from the NYPD at the rank of Detective 1st Grade.[1] Speziale is recognized as one of the nations leading experts on cell phone and wiretapping technology and lectures at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.[10]
Speziale went on to be elected the 8th Sheriff of Passaic County, New Jersey after winning an election on November 2, 2001, against Acting Sheriff Ronald Fava a former Passaic County Prosecutor. Speziale, a Democrat, was the first democrat to be elected Sheriff in Passaic County in fifty years.[11][12][13][14]
In 2010, Speziale was appointed as the Deputy Police Superintendent of the NY - NJ Port Authority Police Department a law enforcement agency in New York and New Jersey, the duties of which are to protect the public, travelers and tenants at all facilities owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and to enforce state and city laws at all the facilities. The Port Authority Police Department is owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state agency running the (4) bridges, (2) tunnels, (5) airports, world trade center, (2) of the world’s largest bus terminals, PATH rapid - rail transit system and seaport in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The Port Authority Police Department is the 24th largest police force in the United States.[15]
In 2003, Jerry Speziale authored a book with Mark Seal titled Without A Badge: Undercover in the World's Deadliest Criminal Organization. The book detailed the activities and methods of how he and an undercover informant, Paul Lir Alexander brought down some of the biggest drug lords, including Alexander himself. Alexander was enraged that his dirty laundry was now being published. Paul Alexander actually sued Speziale under the pretense that the book violated his privacy. From the lawsuit:
Speziale explains how he was able to infiltrate powerful drug distribution cartels and dupe them into believing that he was a trustworthy member of the illegal drug-importing network. In fact, Speziale and the others involved in the undercover investigation would arrange for the shipments to be seized, and then attempt to foist off blame on other members of the importation network. This casting of blame was critical to the success of the undercover activities because the people found to be responsible for drug seizures were no longer trusted and were liable to be killed by the Colombian drug lords running the cocaine cartels. In his book, Speziale describes how Alexander’s sophistication and familiarity with the customs of these drug lords and the distribution network were critical to the success of the government’s undertakings.[16]
In the end the courts ruled that Speziale’s book did not violate Alexander’s privacy, and the case was dismissed. Towards the end of his sentence, he came under investigation in March 2005 on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Sheriff Jerry Speziale of Passaic County, New Jersey. Speziale and Federal Agents from the DEA raided his partner’s Florida home. No charges were filed and Alexander was deported to Brazil and transported by US Marshals in September 2005. Alexander was confined to jail in Minas Gerais, Brazil for drug dealing charges and was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 25 years. While in the federal correctional institution in Jessup, Georgia, the Brazilian Federal Police claim that Alexander directed major drug dealing operations between 1997-1999 while he was a Federal prison inmate. They allege that some 5 tons of cocaine was seized as well as 24 aircraft. In July 2009, Paul Lir Alexander escaped from custody in Brazil after walking away from a prison work detail and his whereabouts remain unknown. Alexander is an international fugitive.[17][18] In 2010, Speziale acted alongside Richard Gere and Don Cheadle in a big-budget cop drama, "Brooklyn's Finest," directed by Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day," "Shooter") and starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke, chronicling the struggles of officers patrolling a dangerous section of Brooklyn, similar to the area Speziale worked in his early days as an NYPD officer in east New York.[19] Speziale received credits in the film for acting as Captain Sidney Geraci, Gere's Captain and also received film credits as the film's "Police Cosultant."[20]
David Permut of Permut Presentations and Christie Hsiao's of Serenity Entertainment have picked up the rights to "Without a Badge." Speziale’s story tells of a New York cop who went undercover into the world of international drug trafficking. The screenplay centers on Speziale's work as part of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, Group 93, which he was a part of and was established in 1990 to combat the dangerous Colombian drug cartels. Speziale took the identity of "Geraldo Bartone" and, together with his informant was successful in apprehending some of the world's most dangerous criminals.[21]
Speziale created the Jerry Speziale Community Outreach foundation that raised thousands of dollars annually to support the community and crime prevention programs for senior citizens and the youth. The organization provided college scholarships, turkeys for the needy on Thanksgiving, and thousands of toys on Christmas for families in need. In 2010, after Speziale left for the Port Authority, the members of the foundation board changed the name to be generic and created the “Sheriff’s Outreach Foundation.”[22][23]
Prior to becoming Deputy Superintendent, Speziale served and continues as a board member on the Saint Joseph’s Medical Center Foundation,[24] He's a fifteen year member of the International Chiefs of Police Association, ten year member of the New Jersey Sheriff's Association, New Jersey PBA Silver Lifetime member and longstanding membership with the NYPD Detective Endowment Association, Italian American Police Society of New Jersey and New Jersey Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association.