Longtime DEA informant charged in alleged scheme to extort high-level cocaine traffickers

MIAMI AP A drug informant who helped the U S Drug Enforcement Administration build several of its biggest cases has been arrested and charged with scheming to extort major cocaine traffickers facing extradition from Colombia and the Dominican Republic Jorge Hern ndez was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud He remains in custody after being arrested and making his initial court appearance Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale Court papers allege that Hern ndez operated a scheme starting in in which he pretended to be a paralegal who for the right price could obtain lighter sentences for drug kingpins according to -page FBI affidavit The FBI alleged that Hern ndez demanded payments of million from six suspected drug traffickers who ended up surrendering or being extradited to the U S In exchange for the payments which came in the form of cash jewelry properties and vehicles in Colombia Hern ndez guaranteed short prison sentences that would be served in an apartment similar to being on house arrest the court papers announced But Hern ndez never delivered on his promises nor did he have authority to offer such leniency As the traffickers who thought they were buying influence grew upset he would deny responsibility and shift blame to the traffickers attorneys the FBI announced Nestor Menendez an attorney who represented Hern ndez at his initial appearance declined to comment In two decades as a confidential informant Hern ndez had been one of federal law enforcement s preponderance prolific case-makers providing the types of tips and information that led to prosecutions of high seas drug agents a former University of Miami money laundering expert and a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicol s Maduro Better known in law enforcement circles by his Spanish nickname Boliche bowling ball the beefy bald-headed Colombian was also the star witness in the bribery trial of two former DEA supervisors convicted for leaking information on ongoing drug investigations He got his start as an informant in shortly after he was arrested in Venezuela where he had fled to escape drug dealers seeking to kill him according to a research by The Associated Press After bribing personnel to secure his release he approached the DEA admitting to killing three people during his days as a drug runner near his home along Colombia s Caribbean coast He then began helping the DEA build specific of its biggest cases Agents grew so reliant on Hern ndez s structure of criminal associates across the Western hemisphere that they set him up with a phone and desk at a federal anti-narcotics task force the AP revealed The DEA terminated his cooperation agreement in court records show after officials discovered he had threatened to expose informants as snitches unless they paid him to keep quiet But he kept close to particular of his former DEA handlers and eventually returned to Miami In he met DEA agent John Costanzo who was supervising agents studying Colombian businessman Alex Saab a suspected bag man for Venezuela s Maduro In Hern ndez testified against Costanzo and another former DEA agent convicted of taking bribes from narco defense attorneys Hern ndez turned the tables on the DEA around the same time he was charged alongside University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley for helping move million on behalf of Saab who prosecutors noted was secretly negotiating a deal to betray Maduro Those charges remain under seal In the complaint unsealed Wednesday the FBI that Hern ndez is serving a term of probation on a federal conviction for conspiracy to commit money laundering that is set to end in May