Evanston Cop Joined DEA To Help Drug Dealing Conspiracy: Feds

EVANSTON, IL — A former detective with the Evanston Police Department was arrested Tuesday and indicted for taking part international narcotics conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said the ex-Evanston cop became a federal agent in order to help an international gang carry out years of drug dealing and murders.

Fernando Gomez, 41, specifically joined the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in order to help a drug-dealing gang based in Puerto Rico known as "La Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos," which translates to the "United Drug Traffickers' Organization." The group was also known as La ONU, prosecutors said.

"Members of the enterprise and their associates were ordered to shoot and kill suspected rival drug trafficking members," according to his indictment. Prosecutors said the group has been responsible for at least eight murders going back to 2006 as well as importing significant quantities of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, primarily into New York.

The organization's leader, Jose Martinez Diaz, also known as "Tony Zinc," and eight other defendants had already been charged for their alleged roles in the organization. Federal prosecutors said the gang has been responsible for multiple murders, various firearm offenses and years of drug trafficking.

While working as a detective with the Evanston Police Department, Gomez helped the gang get guns from drug dealers and transported them to Puerto Rico, according to an indictment unsealed this week in the Southern District of New York. Evanston police did not immediately respond to a request for details about Gomez's time with the department.

“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," said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. 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.”

Gomez faces charges of participating in a narcotics conspiracy involving the distribution of 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, one count of using and carrying firearms during and in relation to the narcotics conspiracy, possessing firearms in furtherance of the narcotics conspiracy and aiding and abetting and the possession of firearms, some of which were brandished and discharged, according to prosecutors.

Charges relating to allegations of a decade-long drug trafficking conspiracy were announced by representatives of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Miami Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Miami Field Office of the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General.

A DEA spokesperson was unable to provide any information about when Gomez began working for the agency or whether he was still a DEA employee.

“DEA takes all allegations of misconduct and wrongdoing very seriously," said Sharon Santiago, spokesperson for agency's Chicago office. "Particularly, when criminal allegations come forward, DEA aggressively pursues those allegations and fully cooperates with all investigating agencies."

If convicted, Gomez faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He was due to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.

Read 19-count superseding indictment