DOJ: Drug agent joined agency to supply guns, aid to violent trafficking organization
Federal conspiracy charges were unsealed Tuesday against a 41-year-old U.S. drug agent who is accused of supplying firearms and other aid to a violent trafficking organization for the past decade.
Fernando Gomez, arrested in Chicago Tuesday morning, was named in an extraordinary indictment, alleging that he joined the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to provide greater assistance to La Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos (La ONU), based in Puerto Rico.
Prosecutors alleged Gomez first began providing help to the group more than 10 years ago when he served as a detective for the Evanston Police Department in Illinois.
While working in Evanston, according to court documents, Gomez allegedly obtained firearms from drug dealers and transported them to La ONU operative Jose Martinez-Diaz, known as "Tony Zinc."
"Gomez then joined the DEA so that he could help members of the narcotics conspiracy, including Martinez-Diaz, evade prosecution by law enforcement," prosecutors claimed.
Geoffrey Berman, chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, called Gomez's alleged crime a "betrayal" of law enforcement.
"Fernando Gomez is a special agent of the DEA, an organization committed to upholding the nation's drug laws and relentless in its pursuit of narcotics traffickers," Berman said. "But as alleged, Gomez joined the DEA to betray those laws and to help narcotics traffickers evade detection by law enforcement. He will now be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
The trafficking group, La ONU, has long moved cocaine from Puerto Rico to the Bronx in New York, engaging in murder and other violence in the process.
Gomez made his first court appearance in Chicago Tuesday afternoon.
If convicted, Gomez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.
"DEA takes all allegations of misconduct and wrongdoing very seriously," agency spokesperson Mary Brandenberger said Tuesday. "When allegations of misconduct come forward, DEA aggressively pursues those allegations and fully cooperates with all investigating agencies."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ: Drug agent joined agency to supply guns, aid to violent trafficking organization
