Staten Island Judge Candidate Was NYPD Narcotics Cop Who Busted 500 Drug Dealers

Now, he is seeking a seat on the bench.

A Staten Island civil court candidate is drawing on a remarkable past as an undercover NYPD narcotics officer who posed as a drug user while infiltrating New York City dealing rings in the 1980s.

Glenn Yost told The Post that he made more than 500 drug arrests during his NYPD career, including Staten Island’s first grand jury case involving the sale of crack cocaine.

“I feel like I’ve come full circle in the law – enforcing it for 20 years, teaching it, and practicing it for nearly 20 years,” said Yost, a 63-year-old Republican attorney.

Born in Brooklyn, Yost moved to Staten Island at age 11. He was raised by his single mother, who worked at Sears.

Yost joined the NYPD at 20 and entered the department’s narcotics unit two years later, he said.

Working under an alias, he conducted undercover operations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island. During one deep-cover assignment, he lived in a Brooklyn apartment equipped with a wiretap and carried false identification and credit cards.

He adopted identities such as “Vinnie,” an aspiring actor who drove a red Eldorado Cadillac and spent summers in the Hamptons, yet frequented squalid crack houses to buy heroin, cocaine and prescription painkiller Percocet.

“Those shooting galleries, if there’s anything you can imagine close to hell, that would be it,” he said.

“It was scary because you didn’t know, you didn’t know who was who. You didn’t know if you were going to get robbed. It smelled horrible. People would go to the bathroom wherever they wanted to.”

He earned dealers’ confidence by showing up repeatedly, effectively becoming a regular customer. A confidential informant also helped strengthen those connections.

“I think ideally what the undercover needs to be is very clever and cunning,” Yost said.

At times, dealers held him at gunpoint and demanded that he sample the drugs to prove he was not a police officer. Yost learned to fake it: He would dip his forefinger into the powder, then bring his middle finger to his mouth. The dealers, he said, “never noticed.”

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When someone ordered him to inject heroin on the spot, “I just pushed them away and started yelling and screaming.”

For protection, he kept a .25 automatic Colt pistol concealed beneath his clothing.

Yost stayed in character so convincingly that one of the criminals he ultimately arrested, “JD [John Doe] Handsome,” formed a close bond with his undercover persona.

“I kind of liked him,” Yost admitted. “He was a good person – other than being a drug dealer … He was thinking of making me the godfather of his kid.”

Yost first met JD Handsome during a failed cocaine purchase, after another dealer grabbed his $20 and ran. Handsome noticed what happened and approached, asking how he could help.

For the next six months, the pair were nearly inseparable, spending long nights together as the undercover operation continued.

When Yost finally arrested his “friend” and the man’s pregnant wife, who was also dealing cocaine, the couple were left stunned.

“If you can imagine the shock on this guy. I mean, I’m his friend,” Yost said. “He was just in complete shock [when they were arrested]. He could not get over the fact that I was a police officer.”

The key to selling his junkie bit was never taking no for an answer, Yost said.

“A heroin addict wants the heroin. If they tell you know ‘no,’ you still hang around and beg until you get what you want,” he said. 

Yost went on to work as a youth outreach officer, co-founding the “No Staten Island Racism” school program before attending New York Law School and retiring from the NYPD at 40. 

While studying for the bar, he taught criminal justice and history at St. John’s University and St. Joseph by the Sea high school on Staten Island. 

He believes his unique background helped him empathize with all walks of life.

“I bring life experience, compassion, patience, and respect to the bench,” said the married father of five. “Compassion comes from observing and being part of people’s suffering.”