Former SoBe Cop Arrested for Kidnapping Russian
Rick Anastasi was a cop for 10 years
The same Miami Beach cop that killed Virginian Husien Shehada was involved in a second officer involved killing just four days later.
The arrests keep coming for former and current public servants.
The FBI has slapped the cuffs on a former veteran Miami Beach police officer for kidnapping and extortion involving a Russian national.
Rick Anastasi resigned from patrolling the streets of South Beach late last year after an internal investigation into an incident.
He apparently started using his cop training to shake down people, according to the FBI's report.
Earlier this month, Anastasi and an associate forced a Russian man into a jeep at gun point and beat him up on the inside. At one point, the victim claims, Anastasi tells his associate to "cut his testicles off" if he didn't come up with some money.
They made the man have his mom wire $1,000 from Russia. Anastasi later told the man the $1,000 was a down payment on $100,000 the duo expected to get from him.
The two men terrorized the victim some more, aiming laser-point rifles at the man's head and firing off "dry rounds" at the man.
Over a week period, the man was hit with a Taser, choked unconscious twice and had his teeth nearly pulled out with a set of pliers, the FBI said.
Anastasi was first questioned and then arrest Thursday night. Anastasi and his associate said they were simply trying to intimidate the unnamed man because they believed he had stolen Anastasi's identity and took some money.
Posted Friday, Mar 19, 2010 - 12:53 PM EST
