“Exactly like the Mafioso in New York. That’s exactly how they are operating,” Calexico Police Chief Mike Bostic said in regards to his own department.

Calexico, California – A border town east of San Diego fired their own police chief last month “in the interest of their own citizens,” and on Oct. 13 Former Police Chief Pompeyo Tabarez was replaced with Mike Bostic.

When Bostic took over the department he found it rife with corruption. “The council members in conjunction with the police officers association and members of that association have used city funds and city resources to run what I would call an extortion racket,” said the newly-appointed police chief as he publicly accused his predecessor, members of his own department and city officials of illegally trying to undermine a criminal investigation, comparing their actions to those of the New York mafia.

“Exactly like the Mafioso in New York. That’s exactly how they are operating,” the chief said.

According to NBC San Diego, after he was on the job for three or four days, Bostic discovered the investigations unit was not working any active cases. The same was true with the narcotics and internal affairs units.

He was unable to find any reports on an alleged kidnapping and assault of a juvenile that took place in October.

“The former chief and his investigative unit were so busy trying to save his career and his job rather than focus on that investigation, they completely botched it,“ Bostic alleged.

Bostic immediately placed several officers on paid leave and demoted others.

Bostic said that he even witnessed detectives using professional burglary tools, that no officer should carry, to break into cars.

“There’s a thing called search warrants in the state of California,” he said. “These were clearly tools for violating people’s rights and we’re trying to get to the bottom of that.”

The corruption was so out of hand that the FBI has launched an investigation into the allegations. Last week during a press conference Bostic publicly denounced the corruption within the department and vowed to end it.

When he got to the part about having to call in the FBI just two weeks into his term, he was moved to tears, “I’ve literally had it,” Bostic said as he broke down.

Unfortunately police department corruption is not isolated to this small border town. There are literally dozens of instances of departments just like this one in Calexico.

What makes this case unique, however, is the fact that the whistelblower is at the top of the department. So many times we see ‘good cops’ fired, threatened, harassed, and smeared for trying to call out corruption within their own department. Bostic, being the department Chief, is seemingly able to avoid such backlash….so far.