USDOJ Press Release: FORMER CITY OF MIAMI POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN JAIL

U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Southern District of Florida
99 N.E. 4 Street,
Miami, FL 33132
(305)961-9001
January 8, 2009
NEWS RELEASE:


FORMER CITY OF MIAMI POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN JAIL

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and John Timoney, Chief of the City of Miami Police Department, announced that former City of Miami Police Officer Jorge Hernandez was sentenced today on a charge of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846, for his role in protecting what he believed was the delivery of a multi-kilogram shipment of cocaine. Hernandez and fellow officer Geovani Nunez previously pled guilty to this charge, which arose from an eight-month undercover investigation jointly conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the cooperation and assistance of the City of Miami Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.

In this morning’s hearing in Miami, Judge Patricia A. Seitz sentenced Hernandez to 108 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. His co-defendant, Geovani Nunez, was previously sentenced by Judge Seitz to 135 months in prison.

As shown in the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, during the course of this investigation, Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the City of Miami Police Department, worked with his co-defendant Nunez to provide a variety of illegal services to an individual who represented himself as having a trucking business involved in transporting stolen merchandise and narcotics. During the course of his criminal activities, Hernandez used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of what he was told were two separate large loads of stolen merchandise, including computers. He also used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of a purported six kilograms of cocaine. In reality, the purported criminal activities were all staged operations done as part of this investigation. The defendants were paid in cash at the conclusion of each criminal episode that they participated in, with Hernandez receiving approximately $10,000 in cash for his criminal services.

Mr. Acosta commended the efforts of the numerous special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and City of Miami Internal Affairs officers who have been working on this investigation. The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Edward N. Stamm.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.