An ex-con who vanished after being released without bail on gun charges by a soft-on-crime judge was captured by federal agents in Puerto Rico, a law enforcement source told The Post on Wednesday.
Frankie Centeno, who allegedly ignored an order to get fitted with an ankle bracelet following his release, was nabbed on the Caribbean island on Tuesday night, the source said.
A spokesperson for the US Marshals Service later confirmed the bust, crediting “intelligence gathered from the NYPD and US Department of Probation here in New York.”
Centeno “was taken into custody without incident,” the USMS spokesperson said.
He faces extradition to New York on an April 1 warrant for failure to appear in court in The Bronx and a March 29 warrant for allegedly violating terms of federal supervised release tied to his most recent conviction.
Centeno, who has four gun-possession convictions that date to 2003, was arrested early March 27 inside a Bronx restaurant and accused of having a loaded, .45 caliber pistol stuck in his waistband.
At his arraignment, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office asked that bail be set at $100,000 cash or $300,000 bond due to Centeno’s history of violating probation and parole, a spokesperson said that the time.
But Bronx Criminal Court Judge Valentina Morales denied the request and instead set Centeno free on the condition that he report to the city Sheriff’s Office so officials could strap an electronic monitoring device around his ankle.
Centeno never showed up, outraging law enforcement officials familiar with his case.
“People were shocked he was released, given his record,” one source said at the time.
Morales — a former public defender and nonprofit executive who was appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio — also sparked controversy in November 2021 when she refused a prosecution request to set bail for a mentally ill homeless man who was busted three times in just 36 hours during an alleged theft and robbery spree.
Morales was the third judge to arraign Agustin Garcia, 63, who boasted to cops that he wouldn’t get locked up because “I have no record” — and she proved him right by sending him to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric exam without any bail.