An exemplary American counter-narcotics agent who used his position to live a life of luxury with expensive cars, yacht parties and Tiffany jewelry, was sentenced to more than 12 years in a United States jail for criminal association with a Colombian cartel to launder money.
José Irizarry acknowledged his crimes, but blamed former colleagues from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for promoting a culture of corruption that made him insensitive to the implications of breaking the law.
“When my client joined the DEA he was trained in how to be corrupt, he was trained in how to break the law,” stated his lawyer María Domínguez. “In this alternate universe it became easier and less suspicious to accept money and gifts” from criminal informants who worked with the anti-narcotics agency.
In handing down her sentencing, District Judge Charlene Honeywell expressed her disgust with the DEA for its shortcomings, saying that other agents corrupted by “the lure of easy money” should also be investigated.
“This has to end,” declared the judge. “It was your turn to be discovered, but it is clear to this court that there are more people.”
The DEA declined to comment on Irizarry’s claims. Prosecutors have described his crimes as a “shocking breach of the public’s trust.”
The accusations against Irizarry highlight the poor supervision he received during his career, in which he was tasked with tracking the government’s use of shell companies, fictitious bank accounts and couriers to combat international drug trafficking.
The case raises questions about whether his former colleagues in the Miami field office, where Irizarry began his criminal activity, also used their positions when dealing with secret informants, who each year move tens of millions of dollars in illicit money under DEA oversight.
In court documents, Domínguez revealed that since Irizarry’s arrest last year, he has met with prosecutors for “endless hours” to provide information on the illegal activities of “fellow police officers who started him off in criminal life. ”.
Honeywell recently sealed “sensitive” documents filed in the criminal case, claiming their disclosure could hamper an ongoing investigation, cause suspects to go on the run, and make it difficult for other witnesses to cooperate.
So far, except for Irizarry’s wife, Nathalia Gómez Irizarry, and a Colombian customs worker, no one else has been charged in the case.
The US Justice Department inspector general criticized the DEA in a report mid-year for failing to adequately supervise what is supposed to be strictly monitored operations like the ones Irizarry worked on.
Following the criticism following a series of scandals involving overseas agents, Anne Milgram, the new DEA administrator, ordered an external review of the agency’s overseas operations, which is ongoing.
The DEA has been rocked by repeated instances of illegal conduct in recent years, including officers charged with wire fraud, bribery and the sale of firearms to drug traffickers. Thursday’s hearing came just four months after another former DEA agent, Chad Scott, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for stealing money from suspects, falsifying government records and perjury.
The DEA hired the 47-year-old Irizarry and allowed him to handle sensitive financial transactions even after he failed a polygraph test, declared bankruptcy, and had close ties to a suspected money laundering perpetrator who would eventually become the godfather of the agent’s twin daughters with his Colombian wife.
Irizarry pleaded guilty last year to 19 federal charges, including bank fraud, and admitted that he used his money laundering expertise to lead a life of luxury that prosecutors say was funded with $ 9 million that he and his accomplices diverted from undercover money laundering investigations.
The illegal proceeds included a $ 30,000 Tiffany diamond ring for his wife, luxury sports cars and a $ 767,000 house in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, as well as residences in South Florida and Puerto Rico. Before he resigned in 2018, Irizarry’s ostentatious habits and accounts of scandalous parties on yachts were already well known to DEA agents and the prosecutors they worked with.
To go ahead with his plans, prosecutors said, Irizarry would file false reports and order DEA personnel to transfer money intended for undercover operations to international accounts that he and his associates controlled. The money should have been thoroughly tracked by the anti-narcotics agency as part of the undercover laundering investigations, the prosecution said.
Irizarry has said that the bank accounts in question constituted a “bribery fund”, which generated income, for official and personal travel of federal police agents, US prosecutors and confidential sources.
Domínguez said that Irizarry accepted full responsibility for his actions, but pointed out that the amount he obtained thanks to the criminal association never exceeded $ 600,000.
At the sentencing hearing on Thursday, Irizarry broke down in tears as he addressed the court, saying the biggest punishment was not being able to explain to his two young daughters why he would be away for so long. He said that when he became a federal police officer two decades ago he did so with a feeling of great pride.
“Unfortunately, there came a time when I made a decision that went against the person I was, that hurt my wife and embarrassed my country,” he said. “I should have imagined it and I didn’t. I failed ”.
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