New details in elaborate revenge plot involving a Lee County deputy

There are new details in a drug conspiracy plot that began with an innocent man under arrest and ended with a deputy off the job.

WINK News first reported on Monday that Charles Custodio had a personal feud with the victim before he had drugs planted on him and got him falsely arrested by former deputy Niko Irizarry. Deputies arrested a third man in this scheme, Scott Snider.

“The investigation revealed the first suspect, 36-year-old Charles Custodio, had a personal hatred for our victim,” said Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

Court documents show that hatred turned into a plot for revenge against a man who helped put Custodio in prison. It started with a text message deputies found, in which Custodio said he would, “[g]et him back for what he did, even if it cost him every dime he had.”

Custodia was angry because a jury convicted him in 2017 for insurance fraud. The key witness was the man he hated, who testified against him and helped send him to jail. Court documents map out how Custodio’s revenge tour began.

“What started this was that there were civilians involved in this setup,” said Donald Day, the victim’s attorney. “They uncovered evidence that an officer is involved. And that is extremely troubling.”

The civilian he is referring to is Scott Snider and the officer is Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy Niko Irazarry.

On Dec. 15, Custodio, posing as a man named Shane Carroll, traded emails and text messages with the man he hated, a real estate agent, to show him a home in the Gulf Harbour Community. That real estate agent is the Day’s client.

The man who showed up for the meeting wasn’t Custodio or the imaginary Shane Caroll. Instead, the man who met with the victim was Scott Snider.

During that meeting, detectives say Snider planted a large amount of drugs in the real estate agent’s car.

The next day, deputy Irizarry pulled over the real estate agent.

Drug-sniffing dogs found more than 50 bags of opioids, methamphetamines, and other pills in the man’s car.

The deputy helped Custodio because they were friends, and court documents show Custodio promised the deputy sexual favors and a trip to Paris if he helped.

My client calls me and the case begins with his statement emphatically that he was not involved in drugs,” Day said. “And he’s certainly not the kind of guy you would picture to have a trafficking amount of drugs. It’s just not in his character, you know, hasn’t had any prior issues before.”

Custodio has been released on bond. Snider is awaiting extradition back to Lee County.