Feds: Cop got up to $800 a week in tow truck bribes
POLICE | Widening investigation of towing industry
A Chicago Police officer who also serves as an assistant athletic director at a west suburban high school was charged Wednesday with extorting up to $800 a week from a tow truck company.
Michael J. Ciancio, 56, is the second cop busted by the feds in a widening investigation of the towing industry.
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Those who know the 21-year police veteran said they could not believe the allegations that he's a crook.
"I don't think you could find a human being with a bad word about him," said a friend, attorney Joe Crispino.
Ciancio coaches the River Forest Raiders girls' elementary basketball program and is an assistant athletic director at Trinity High School in River Forest. He "lives and breathes basketball," coaching after work and on weekends, a family member said.
Ciancio and Trinity officials could not be reached for comment.
Ciancio was arrested at his home Wednesday. The officer, who worked in the Jefferson Park police district, has been stripped of his patrol duties.
On Aug. 10, Ciancio was caught taking a $600 bribe from a tow truck driver in a Walgreens parking lot on the Northwest Side, an FBI complaint said. "Beautiful," he allegedly exclaimed as he accepted the cash from a driver cooperating with the FBI. "Let's get out of here, there's too many eyeballs."
The unidentified driver, who owns a towing company, admitted paying Ciancio $600 to $800 a week -- about $100 per vehicle -- to steer business to the driver and shoo away competitors at accident scenes, the complaint said.
The driver, who has a criminal record, claimed he's been paying bribes to cops in the Jefferson Park and Albany Park districts on the Northwest Side for more than 15 years, according to the FBI.
The FBI did not disclose how many officers are suspected of taking bribes, but sources have told the Sun-Times that at least a dozen cops are under the microscope. The FBI, Chicago Police and Internal Revenue Service have been investigating since 2003.
Last month, the FBI arrested Chicago Police Officer Joseph Grillo and Collision Towing owner Jim "Meatball" Athans for allegedly helping another cop carry out an insurance scam. The FBI did not identify the second officer.
When Grillo was arrested, an FBI agent told him something like "give Ald. [William] Banks up and it will go a long way to helping you out," Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin reported last month.
Grillo had worked in the Grand-Central police district in Banks' 36th Ward on the Northwest Side. The alderman did not comment on Marin's report.
