A New York City police detective has pleaded guilty to hiring hacking services to steal the passwords of dozens of email accounts belonging to fellow officers in the police department and others.

Edwin Vargas, a 42-year-old detective assigned to a precinct in the Bronx, also pleaded guilty to accessing the National Crime Information Center database – a federal law enforcement database – without authorization to obtain information about at least two NYPD officers.

The court documents, out of the Southern District of New York, don't detail whose email accounts he accessed, but a press release (.pdf) indicates that between April 2010 and October 2012, he paid more than $4,000 to email hacking services and obtained the usernames and passwords of at least 43 personal email accounts and one cellular phone belonging to at least 30 different individuals. These included 20 current or former NYPD officers, including the two officers whose information he accessed in the NCIC database – and an NYPD administrative employee.

Vargas accessed at least one personal email account belonging to an NYPD officer.

He's charged with one count of conspiracy to commit hacking and one count of unauthorized access.

Vargas faces a possible sentence of one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 for each count.