Feds: NY school guard helped ex-cop execute 4 in drug deal gone wrong

NEW YORK - A second person has been arrested on murder charges in connection with the deaths of four suburban New York men whose bodies were found after they went missing during a drug deal.

Federal prosecutors say 55-year-old Joseph Biggs, a security guard at a school in Hastings-On-Hudson, was arrested on Thursday. Information on his lawyer wasn't immediately available.

Prosecutors say Biggs and retired police officer Nicholas Tartaglione participated in the "brutal drug-related kidnapping and murder" of four people in a bar in Chester, New York last April.

Tartaglione used to work for the Briarcliff Manor police department. He was arrested in December and has pleaded not guilty.

The four bodies were found on property linked to Tartaglione. Police say the victims knew each other and some were involved in drug activity.

"Murders are always frightening, but when allegedly committed by people entrusted with the safety of others, it is all the more disturbing," said Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim.

In March, CBS New York reported that sources told them Gerald Benderoth, reportedly a former police officer in Haverstraw, N.Y., who was allegedly under investigation for ties to Tartaglione, shot himself in the head as the FBI pulled his car over.