A former Miami police officer convicted of shaking down drug dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars in coke and cash was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his guilty plea to an off-duty extortion scheme.
Frenel Cenat, 41, who had worked in the police department’s property room protecting evidence used in criminal investigations, admitted that he used his badge and unmarked police-issued vehicle to stop drug-trafficking suspects in Broward County. His M.O.: stealing cocaine and money from the suspects while threatening to put them in jail. He was taken down in an FBI sting operation last year.
Cenat apologized to U.S. District Judge James Cohn, who showed no sympathy for the 17-year police veteran, calling his crime a “betrayal” of the public’s trust. The judge noted only that he accepted responsibility for this crime soon after his arrest, and then condemned his wrongdoing.
“This is not a case of a police officer going into a Best Buy and stealing a pair of iPods,” Cohn said. “This is a case of a police officer using all of the trappings of his position to extort ostensible criminals in exchange for their release from going to jail.”
Cohn ordered Cenat to surrender to prison authorities immediately, rejecting his defense lawyer’s request for a one-month delay. Cenat, who lived with his family in Boynton Beach while free on bond, looked back at his crying family members as he was escorted by U.S. Marshals deputies out of the courtroom.
Cenat was facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, so he ended up getting one more year in prison based on a recommendation by a federal prosecutor.
“By these actions, the defendant completely betrayed the trust placed in him by the [Miami Police Department] and the community he was sworn to serve and protect,” federal prosecutor Edward Stamm said in a sentencing memo, recommending an 11-year prison term.
Stamm said the police officer took a total of $132,000 in cash that was represented to be drug proceeds and seven kilos of what was represented to be cocaine, in exchange for allowing the drivers of those vehicles to leave and not be arrested.
Cenat’s defense lawyer, Howard Schumacher, worked out the agreement with Stamm, instead of being charged by indictment and face trial. Schumacher asked the judge for the mandatory minimum sentence — 10 years.
“As a result of his conduct in this matter, he has lost his position, his pension and his family is further struggling with the loss of his income,” Schumacher wrote in a sentencing memo. He noted that Cenat, who lives with his wife and two children in Boynton Beach, only started to earn more than $100,000 a year as a police officer after the department gave him credit for a master’s degree in public administration.
In March, Cenat pleaded guilty to extortion and attempting to possess cocaine with intent to distribute it before Cohn in Fort Lauderdale federal court. The extortion offense carried up to 20 years and the cocaine charge up to 10 years. He must also pay $13,000 in a forfeiture judgment as part of his punishment.
‘Corrupt police officer’
Cenat joined the city’s police force in 2008 and had worked in the evidence room over the past three years before his arrest in November.
At the time, the Miami Police Department fired Cenat and called him a “corrupt” police officer.
A criminal complaint, based on a sting operation involving an FBI confidential source who interacted with Cenat, charged him with using his official position to extort criminal suspects under the Hobbs Act and attempting to possess and distribute cocaine.
Key meeting in Broward
According to an affidavit, Cenat met with the FBI confidential source and an associate who knew the officer in October in Broward County. The purpose of the meeting was to arrange for the Miami police officer to target someone who he believed to be a drug dealer in order to steal $50,000 from him.
At the recorded meeting, Cenat introduced himself as “Frenel” and showed the confidential source his unmarked police-issued vehicle, a black 2016 Ford Explorer, and sounded the lights and siren. It was Cenat’s “take home” vehicle from the Miami Police Department.
Cenat described how “he likes to set up the ‘play’ “— a scheme to steal drugs and money from suspects while he is off duty outside his regular jurisdiction — and his “preference to do traffic stops after receiving intelligence about a drug transaction,” according to the FBI affidavit.
Cenat said that “on duty they [Miami police] got computers on and can track you and s— like that … you know what I mean … ping your phone … what you are doing in this area. You don’t wanna do that s— bro while you are on duty’‘ and “if I work down there l will never f— down there bro,” according to the affidavit.
During the undercover meeting, Cenat discussed the bills he was going to pay from his next “play,” saying: “I just need bread now.”
FBI agents pose as drug traffickers
In early November, the confidential source and associate coordinated the “play” with Cenat through group chats on Signal, setting up a sting where two undercover FBI employees posing as drug traffickers planned to do a deal involving three kilograms of cocaine worth $52,000 at the Stadium Hotel parking lot in Miami Gardens, the affidavit says. Cenat’s role was to stop one of the FBI employees after the transaction and shake him down for the purported drug proceeds.
On the evening of Nov. 3, 2023, the “play” went according to plan. Cenat made the traffic stop and told the FBI employee posing as the driver that his name was “Officer Martez” with the “Miami Police Department, Dade County Narcotics Unit.” He told the undercover employee, who had stashed the $52,000 in $100 bills in a backpack, that he was under investigation for drug dealing.
“Cenat then gave [the FBI employee] the choice of giving him the backpack or going to jail, and as planned, [the employee] told him to take the backpack,” the affidavit says. “Cenat then left the scene with the backpack of money.”
The entire stop was recorded.
Cenat then agreed to meet with the FBI’s confidential source to give him a cut of the money at a Home Depot in Coral Springs. Cenat handed over $13,000 to the confidential source, which was recorded, too.
After that payoff, Cenat kept the remaining $39,000 and drove to his home in Boynton Beach.
Days later, Cenat called the confidential source to see about doing another “play,” leading to another FBI sting involving seven kilos of cocaine worth $80,000 at a Fairfield Inn parking lot in Deerfield Beach, according to the affidavit.
This time, when he made the stop in his unmarked police car, Cenat identified himself as “Officer Martez of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit” and told the undercover employee posing as the driver that he was under investigation for drug dealing. He told him to hand over the drugs and money, which were stashed in a duffel bag.
After the transaction, Cenat met up with the FBI’s confidential source again to make another split of the drug proceeds at a Walmart parking lot in Coral Springs. Cenat was then arrested. This time, both the seven kilos of sham cocaine and $80,000 in $100 bills were found in the duffel bag inside his police-issued vehicle.
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