{"id":27010,"date":"2023-10-12T12:05:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T12:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/12\/shadowy-snitch-takes-starring-role-in-bribery-trial-of-dea-agents\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:04:15","slug":"shadowy-snitch-takes-starring-role-in-bribery-trial-of-dea-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/2023\/10\/12\/shadowy-snitch-takes-starring-role-in-bribery-trial-of-dea-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadowy snitch takes starring role in bribery trial of DEA agents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his two decades as a professional drug snitch, Jorge Hern\u00e1ndez was a master of the double cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He lied to his handlers, threatened to unmask fellow informants and even admitted killing three people during his days as a cocaine runner. But time and again, he leveraged his extensive contacts in the narcotrafficking underworld to stay alive, avoid the inside of a jail cell and keep making money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now Hern\u00e1ndez has turned the tables again, this time on the same U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that launched his lucrative career as the go-to fixer for traffickers, prosecutors and defense attorneys alike. And he\u2019s delivered his most explosive trophy yet: two veteran DEA agents <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-drug-enforcement-administration-florida-miami-conspiracy-082ea2a3edbc347ffa35510cfa636755\">charged in a $73,000 bribery conspiracy<\/a> involving leaked information about ongoing drug investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2023\/04\/20\/dea-chief-faces-probe-into-swampy-hires-no-bid-contracts\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP23106692608904.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">DEA chief faces probe into \u2018swampy\u2019 hires, no-bid contracts<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Among the spending under scrutiny is $4.7 million for \u201cstrategic planning and communication\u201d and other contracts used to hire people Milgram knew.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hern\u00e1ndez, a beefy, bald-headed figure known by the Spanish nickname Boliche \u2013 bowling ball \u2013 made secret recordings for the FBI and is expected to play a key role this month in the Manhattan federal court trial of former DEA supervisors <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/6b2787ff1ccb15aefb57f01024821d52\">Manny Recio and John Costanzo Jr.<\/a> It\u2019s a case that threatens to expose the seamy underbelly of the nation\u2019s premier narcotics law enforcement agency, which has seen at least 18 agents charged or convicted of crimes since 2015, many for being too cozy with informants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not on trial but in the middle of it all is a fiercely competitive circle of high-priced Miami defense attorneys flippantly referred to as the \u201cwhite powder bar.\u201d Their stock in trade is not so much the finer points of law but in scrambling to sign up kingpin clients before the ink is dry on their indictments, negotiating surrender deals and converting them into government cooperators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In such a world, informants like Hern\u00e1ndez thrive by trading in the currency of information \u2014 who will be charged and when, said Steven Dudley, co-founder of Insight Crime, a research center focused on Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s a linchpin in a corrupt system that is about making cases and making money,\u201d Dudley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen cases are made everyone wins,\u201d he added. \u201cThe narcos get lower sentences and get to keep some proceeds, the prosecutors and agents get promotions, and the lawyers rake in the money. The only loser is Lady Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tiffany jewels, VIP travel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case is just the latest embarrassment for the DEA, following the arrest of a standout agent in Colombia who <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/soccer-sports-la-liga-money-laundering-puerto-rico-38aed2da8cd0ac237aca28aa39321105\">laundered money<\/a> for the cartels and spent lavishly on Tiffany jewels and VIP travel, and another accused of accepting <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/75885d8258644f64ae2b9a2b81489b48\">$250,000 in bribes<\/a> to protect the Mafia in Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s central role in the latest case emerged from an Associated Press review of hundreds of court records, some of which have never been revealed publicly, and interviews with 12 current and former law enforcement officials familiar with his career as a confidential informant, including several who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawyers for Recio and Costanzo have raised concerns in court papers about Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s criminal history, particularly the three people he admitted to killing prior to becoming an informant. But prosecutors insist he is reliable, pointing to bank records and wiretapped calls they say corroborate his testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust because someone has committed crimes doesn\u2019t mean that we immediately discount everything they say,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheb Swett told a judge earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither the DEA nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment. Hern\u00e1ndez hung up when contacted by the AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCall the Justice Department\u2019s customer service line,\u201d he later texted. \u201cThey have all the information you desire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Court records show the 56-year old Hern\u00e1ndez began his criminal climb in the 1990s dispatching boatloads of cocaine for the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing group that later morphed into one of the world\u2019s largest drug-trafficking organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2000, after a warlord placed a hit on him, he fled to neighboring Venezuela, where he was arrested. After paying bribes to secure his release, he approached the DEA about becoming an informant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By all accounts, Hern\u00e1ndez proved an adept casemaker, developing a reputation for delivering results but also aggressive behavior toward friends and foes alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agents grew so reliant on Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s network of more than 100 informants across Latin America and the Caribbean that they set him up with a phone and desk at the Tampa headquarters of Operation Panama Express, a federal anti-narcotics task force combining resources from the FBI, DEA, U.S. Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, people familiar with Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s past say his luck ran out in 2008 when he was recorded threatening to expose federal informants as snitches unless they paid him to keep quiet. Court records show the DEA abruptly terminated his cooperation agreement and he returned to Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when one door closed, another opened. Despite being blackballed as an informant, Hern\u00e1ndez continued to keep in close contact with the DEA and in 2016 met Costanzo, who was supervising agents in Miami investigating Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a suspected bag man for Venezuela\u2019s socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro. At some point, Hern\u00e1ndez was also receiving money transfers on Saab\u2019s behalf from offshore accounts and banished from the case, people close to the probe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after, Hern\u00e1ndez started cooperating with the FBI in New York, which had its own investigation into Saab. This time his payout wasn\u2019t in cash \u2014 it was in seeking to avoid his own criminal exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017, Hern\u00e1ndez connected Saab with Bruce Bagley, a University of Miami expert on narcotics trafficking. At Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s urging, Bagley received $3 million from accounts controlled by Saab in the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. He then <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/miami-us-news-venezuela-virus-outbreak-fl-state-wire-e207ec800f75193d8483a0c02c346ee7\">transferred the money<\/a> to Hern\u00e1ndez, prosecutors have said, believing it would be forwarded to Saab\u2019s U.S. attorneys, who were secretly negotiating a deal for Saab to turn on Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the professor admitted keeping a 10% commission and in 2021 was sentenced to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/venezuela-miami-university-of-miami-5628512a929ad1b73d78a86a4d1169a1\">six months<\/a> in prison for money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People familiar with the case told the AP that Hern\u00e1ndez was also charged under seal in the same money laundering scheme, and that may have pushed him to keep cooperating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Court papers show that in early 2019, at the FBI\u2019s direction, Hern\u00e1ndez recorded conversations with Recio as well as Miami attorney Luis Guerra in which they discussed recruiting targets of DEA investigations as clients using confidential information allegedly furnished by Costanzo. Recio had recently retired from DEA and was working as a private investigator with Guerra and another attorney, David Macey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recio is accused in the indictment of speaking hundreds of times on a burner phone he purchased for Costanzo to allegedly coordinate unlawful searches of criminal databases. In exchange, Recio allegedly directed purchases to Costanzo totaling $73,000, including plane tickets and a down payment on a condo. Prosecutors did not allege in the indictment that the lawyers were aware of those gifts but a court filing this month said they \u201cbelonged to the conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also under scrutiny were conversations between Recio and Costanzo discussing confidential DEA plans in 2019 to arrest another potential client. C\u00e9sar Peralta was a high-level trafficker in the Dominican Republic who was able to elude capture for more than four months despite a massive search involving 700 law enforcement officials, according to court documents and people familiar with the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The task of reaching out to drug suspects to steer them to the attorneys of choice was assigned to Hern\u00e1ndez, who was allegedly promised a generous cut of any legal fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDon\u2019t tell anybody where that information comes from,\u201d Guerra tells Hern\u00e1ndez in one recorded conversation, according to court documents and the people familiar with the case. \u201cDo it the way you always do it, brother. Using your magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Court filings in the case said agents also allegedly tried to gain favor with Nicholas Palmeri, a senior DEA official who last year was <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/politics-united-states-government-mexico-miami-c572727a7e7c740dde5e4da280de40b6\">quietly ousted for improper contacts<\/a> with attorneys for narcotraffickers, including Macey. In April 2019, Macey allegedly spent nearly $2,000 on tickets for a Yankees-Red Sox game and dinner in Manhattan for Costanzo, Palmeri and himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe about to own Mexico. Nic is in,\u201d Costanzo texted Recio a few months later, when Palmeri was serving as regional director for the DEA in Mexico and Central America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prosecutors declined to say whether any attorneys have been or will be charged. Attorneys for Recio and Costanzo did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Macey and Guerra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Costanzo, who was suspended by the DEA after being indicted, denied in a 2019 FBI interview that he ever took anything of value. But he acknowledged that he and other agents sometimes tipped off defense attorneys as part of their mission to encourage suspects to turn themselves in and cooperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for Hern\u00e1ndez, he\u2019s still involved in Miami\u2019s legal community, running Hern\u00e1ndez de Luque Brothers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hernandezdeluquebrothersllc.com\/\">billed on its website<\/a> as a \u201cnew kind of consulting firm for a changing world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAn integral part of our services is to work closely with our clients so that they can make the right decisions in selecting the right attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The case threatens to expose the seamy underbelly of the nation\u2019s premier narcotics law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":9,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[39,31,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2922,3003],"class_list":["post-27010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doj-fbi","category-home","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BKNGFYP4D5HV5KIRY2Q4KGZAJI","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/2023\/10\/12\/shadowy-snitch-takes-starring-role-in-bribery-trial-of-dea-agents\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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