CHICAGO – A former Chicago police officer accused in a grisly extortion and murder plot has been charged with planning to kill someone else.

Steven Mandell, 61, was arrested in October along with former Willow Springs police officer Gary Engel. Federal prosecutors said the men had plotted to kidnap and torture someone, extort money and then kill and dismember the victim in an office they had equipped with saws and a sink in which to drain the person’s blood.

Mandell and Engel were about to carry out the crime when they were arrested Oct. 25, authorities allege.