A high-level NYPD official whose phone was confiscated by the FBI in a federal corruption probe of the department is leaving the force.
Raul Pintos, who served as chief of staff to police commissioner Edward Caban, filed for retirement on Friday, according to two former NYPD officials. Caban resigned his post as the city’s top cop on Thursday, a week after the feds raided his Rockland County home.
Pintos is close not just with Caban but also with Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks — serving as commanding officer under Banks when Banks was chief of the department’s Community Affairs Bureau roughly a decade ago, one of the sources said.
“He’s very high up,” the source said of Pintos, a 3-star chief. “He has a lot of power.”
Banks was among the high-level officials targeted in raids earlier this month that stem from probes by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the administration of Mayor Eric Adams.
Also targeted were both of Banks’ brothers, schools chancellor David Banks and Terence Banks, a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority official who started a consulting firm that represented a Florida tech company with business interests before both his brothers.
Caban’s brother, James Caban, a former NYPD officer, is also a target of a separate federal probe for alleged influence peddling involving NYPD enforcement of nightlife establishments, according to multiple publications.
The NYPD press office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Pintos’ status.
A third former NYPD official said Pintos’ exit isn’t that unusual given that he had already retired from the department in 2020, before Caban brought him back to lead his office of the first deputy commissioner in 2022.
Interim police commissioner Thomas Donlon would have been expected to replace Pintos regardless as he brings in some of his own team, the official said.
A man who answered a phone number listed for Pintos hung up after a reporter for THE CITY identified himself.
Pintos’ departure follows that of mayoral counsel Lisa Zornberg, who stepped down suddenly over the weekend after saying she could no longer serve Adams effectively.
