A New York City police officer has been arrested in connection with a plot to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and eat women, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan announced Thursday.
According to a press statement given by the office, NYPD Officer Gilberto Valle, 28, was arrested Wednesday by FBI and NYPD Internal Affairs detectives at his home in Forest Hills, Queens. The six-year police veteran was accused of accessing the federal National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database to obtain information on a woman and conspiring with another individual "to kidnap, rape, torture, kill, cook and cannibalize a number of women."
"Gilberto Valle's alleged plans to kidnap women so that they could be raped, tortured, killed, cooked, and cannibalized shock the conscience," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "This case is all the more disturbing when you consider Valle's position as a New York City police officer and his sworn duty to serve and protect. Our investigation is ongoing."
According to the US Attorney's Office, Valle had conversations in February and May of this year with at least two unnamed individuals regarding plots to kidnap, kill and eat two separate victims.
In one instance, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, Valle had also created a document called "Abducting and Cooking [Victim-1]: a Blueprint, " which contained information about the first victim-including her name, date of birth, height, weight and bra size.
"The document also contains a section called "Materials Needed" in which VALLE wrote, in part, the following: Car (I have it), Chloroform (refer to website for directions), Rope (Strongest kind to tie her up)," the statement reads.
And on May 31, federal officials said Valle, without authorization, accessed the NCIC database to get a hold of information on a third victim, which he stored on his computer.
CNN reported Thursday that a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told them that Valle had allegedly talked about his plans with other men on an internet fetish site for people that fantasize about cannibalism.
The site reported the following: "Authorities have no evidence he planned to carry out any of the acts he allegedly plotted with others on the online fantasy website, the law enforcement source says. The source says Valle has a clean record."
The Queens resident is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000, and one count of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization from a federal agency. The latter crime is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000.
At his hearing before a federal judge Thursday, NBC News affiliate 11alive.com reported, prosecutors said Valle "took active and affirmative steps short of kidnapping her, cooking her and eating her."
"Had he not been arrested, we believe he would have carried out his plan," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Hadassa Waxman.
Defense lawyer Julia Gato, Valle's attorney, argued that his client's online chats were "just idle talk," pointing out no ropes, chemicals or other suspicious material were found in his home.
Valle was denied bail.
This isn't the first time a cannibal-like incident has made headlines. In June, a Florida man suspected of being high on a street drug called "bath salts" was shot by police after attacking a 65-year-old man and eating the man's nose, mouth and eyes, ABC News reported.
And in a second attack later that month, police in Harford County, Maryland, arrested a 21-year-old man who told them that he killed a male housemate and ate his heart and part of his brain afterwards.
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