Three top NYPD officials and a fundraiser for Mayor Bill de Blasio were arrested at their homes by the NYPD and the FBI early Monday morning as part of a widening investigation, authorities said.
Deputy Inspector James Grant, Deputy Chief Michael Harrington and Sgt. David Villanueva, who is linked to the department's gun licensing division, were arrested Monday morning. Jeremy Reichberg, a Brooklyn businessman who donated to de Blasio's 2013 mayoral campaign, has also been arrested.
The arrests are linked to the alleged exchange of lavish gifts for favors, such as funeral escorts, street closures and expedited gun licenses for an ultra-Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol known as the Shomrim that has long been controversial for its tactics in safeguarding ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn.