Son of Miami Police Chief cuffed in $450,000 pot sting

NY Daily News
Nov. 03, 2005

The son of Miami Police Chief John Timoney - the respected former NYPD first deputy commissioner - was busted in upstate New York for attempting to buy nearly a half-million dollars worth of marijuana, authorities said yesterday.

Sean Timoney, 25, and alleged accomplice Jae Seu, 22, had no idea the drug dealer peddling 400 pounds of pot Tuesday was an undercover federal agent, officials said.

Timoney allegedly gave the agent a gym bag stuffed with $450,000 - with the cash in bundles of $10,000, cops said.

When he followed the agent out of a guest room in the Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Spring Valley, he thought he was going to get the drugs, cops said.

But Drug Enforcement Administration agents waiting in the hall swarmed him at 8:30 p.m.

Seu allegedly set up the drug deal, talking to the federal agent by phone on Halloween and Tuesday.

Sources said Timoney allegedly drove Seu to the hotel after being offered a few thousand dollars.

John Timoney, who served as NYPD deputy commissioner under then-Police Commissioner William Bratton in the mid-1990s, was notified of his son's arrest Tuesday night.

John Timoney, who has also led the Philadelphia Police Department, declined comment. But sources said his family was rocked by the arrest. Noted criminal defense attorney Edward Hayes, a close friend of the family, will represent Sean Timoney.

"No father is happy to find his son has been arrested by the DEA," Hayes said.

Sean Timoney, who attends St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where he lives, and Seu, of Glenside, Pa., were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Albany yesterday. They were held without bail pending a hearing tomorrow. If convicted, they face up to 40 years in prison, a $2 million fine and up to life on parole.