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There’s more trouble brewing for an embattled Queens public defender office, as a lawyer there was busted for passing drugs to an incarcerated client just days after the group’s founder was charged with fraud.

One of the staff lawyers at Queens Defenders was arrested for allegedly attempting to sneak more than 130 pages of paper laced with THC to an inmate during a scheduled attorney visit at Rikers Island.

Bernardo Caceres was charged with promoting prison contraband, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison in New York.


  Caceres smiled as he was handcuffed after a K-9 dog smelled drugs inside a yellow envelope he brought to Rikers. NYC Coba Caceres smiled as he was handcuffed after a K-9 dog smelled drugs inside a yellow envelope he brought to Rikers. NYC Coba

During a visit to inmate Luis DeJesus Wednesday afternoon – who’s jailed on charges of second-degree burglary – a K-9 dog smelled something fishy inside a yellow envelope Caceres had brought with him.

When a corrections officer opened it, he discovered multiple discolored legal sized papers, which were seized by the Correctional Intelligence Bureau and tested positive for THC.

“The fact that this attorney would brazenly attempt to smuggle in a large quantity of THC into one of our biggest jails is further proof of why paper documents brought by visitors should be scanned and downloaded electronically onto tablets before entering our facilities,” said Correctional Officers Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio.

Caceres smiled as he was handcuffed by correctional staff and arrested, in what’s the latest brush with the law for the troubled public defender’s clinic.


  Caceres has been working at the embattled Queens legal aid clinic since 2020. LinkedIn/Bernardo Caceres Caceres has been working at the embattled Queens legal aid clinic since 2020. LinkedIn/Bernardo Caceres

Its founder, Lori Zeno and another lawyer at the group, Rashad Ruhani, who is her husband, were charged in federal court Wednesday.

The couple stole at least $60,000 from the organization and used it to pay for a pricey penthouse, $2,000 restaurant meals and even a dream getaway to Bali, a bombshell indictment claims.

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