True Crime
Former NYPD Sgt. Atickul Islam pleads guilty in Brooklyn to impersonating an ICE official.
Atickul Islam, 29, of Queens pleaded guilty Sept. 30, 2026, in the Eastern District of New York to falsely impersonating a U.S. officer after posing as the director of ICE's New York Field Office in texts to a woman and her family. He resigned from the NYPD on Sept. 25. Sentencing is set for March 24. He faces up to three years.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
A federal guilty plea is a conviction by admission on the impersonation count. It is not a contested jury verdict, but it is a conviction on that charge. The Eastern District of New York says Islam used a fake ICE director identity to threaten deportation after a personal dispute. QNS and Gothamist report he had to resign and is barred from NYPD or other law-enforcement jobs. Sentencing still sets the custody range. Impersonating federal authority to intimidate someone is exactly the kind of abuse that wrecks public trust in real officers.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that former NYPD Sgt. Atickul Islam, also known as "James W. Anderson," pleaded guilty Sept. 30, 2026, before Judge Dora L. Irizarry to false impersonation of an officer of the United States. QNS and Gothamist covered the plea. Islam, 29, of Ozone Park / Queens, faces a maximum of three years when sentenced. Gothamist reported the sentencing hearing is set for March 24.
According to the EDNY press release and court filings summarized there, between March 22 and March 29, 2025, Islam texted a victim, threatened to call ICE, and then messaged from an unknown number claiming to be the Director of ICE's New York Field Office. He directed the victim and her family to report to an ICE office or face "further legal action and enforcement measures." Those are the government's facts admitted for the plea. They are not a separate trial finding on every surrounding detail.
As part of the plea, Islam was required to resign from the NYPD, which he did on Sept. 25, 2026, and he cannot apply to the NYPD or any law-enforcement agency again. QNS reported he also had to surrender firearms registered in his name. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said the office will not tolerate an officer using the threat of federal enforcement for a personal vendetta. The case is prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Russell Noble and Molly Delaney. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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