Ex-DEA agent charged in conspiracy tied to cartel

MIAMI — A former federal narcotics agent has been arrested on charges of conspiring to launder money with the same Colombian drug cartel he was supposed to be fighting.

Jose Irizarry and his wife were arrested Friday at their home near San Juan, Puerto Rico, as part of a 19-count federal indictment that accused the 46-year-old Irizarry of “secretly using his position and his special access to information” to divert millions of dollars in drug proceeds from control of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“It’s a black eye for the DEA to have one of its own engaged in such a high level of corruption,” said Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former chief of international operations.

“He jeopardized investigations. He jeopardized other agents, and he jeopardized informants.”

Federal prosecutors in Tampa, Fla., say the conspiracy not only enriched Irizarry but benefited two unindicted co-conspirators, neither of whom is named in the indictment.

One was employed as a Colombian public official, and the other was described as the head of a drug trafficking and money laundering organization who became the godfather to the Irizarry couple’s children in 2015, when the DEA agent was posted to the Colombian resort city of Cartagena, authorities said.

When The Associated Press revealed the scale of the allegations against Irizarry last year, it sent shockwaves through the DEA.

But Irizarry previously had been known as a model agent, winning awards and praise from his supervisors.

After joining the DEA in Miami, he was entrusted with an undercover money laundering operation using front companies, shell bank accounts and couriers.

Irizarry resigned in January 2018 after being reassigned to Washington when his boss in Colombia became suspicious.

The case has raised concerns within the DEA that a conspiracy may have compromised undercover operations and upended criminal cases.

“His fingerprints are all over dozens of arrests and indictments,” said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami.

“It could have a ripple effect and cause courts to re-examine any case he was involved in.”

Irizarry and his wife posted $10,000 bond each and were released later Friday. Nathalia Gomez-Irizarry declined to comment and closed the door at the house she shares with her husband, saying he wasn’t home. Messages to Irizarry’s attorney were not immediately returned.

The DEA referred comment to the Justice Department.

A lawyer for the key witness in the case, a former DEA informant who was handled by Irizarry, celebrated the charges.

Gustavo Yabrudi was given a 46-month sentence last year for his role in a multimillion-dollar money laundering conspiracy.

“Mr. Yabrudi has been waiting for almost two years for this day,” said Leonardo Concepcion.

“It’s time that the puppet masters who pulled his strings and abused their authority over him are made to answer for their actions.”

Starting around 2011, authorities said, Irizarry used the cover of his badge to file false reports and mislead his superiors, all while directing DEA personnel to wire funds reserved for undercover stings to accounts in Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere that he controlled or that were tied to his wife and his co-conspirators.

He’s also accused of sharing sensitive law enforcement information with his co-conspirators.

The DEA has declined to comment on its employment of Irizarry and on potential red flags that came up during his screening process.

Irizarry was hired by the DEA despite indications that he showed signs of deception in a polygraph exam, and that he had declared bankruptcy with debts of almost $500,000.

Still, he was permitted to handle financial transactions after being hired by the DEA.

In total, Irizarry and informants under his direction handled at least $3.8 million that should’ve been carefully tracked by the DEA as part of undercover money laundering investigations, authorities said.

Proceeds from the scheme funded the purchase of a $30,000 Tiffany diamond ring, a BMW, three Land Rovers and a $767,000 home in Cartagena as well as homes in south Florida and Puerto Rico, where the couple has been living, authorities said.

To hide his tracks, authorities said, Irizarry opened a bank account in someone else’s name and used the victim’s forged signature and Social Security number.

The indictment was handed up a week after another former DEA agent was sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a decadelong drug conspiracy that involved the smuggling of thousands of pounds of cocaine from Puerto Rico to New York.