Chicago DEA Agent Accused Of Helping Violent Drug Cartel

A Chicago DEA agent is being accused of working with a Puerto Rican-based gang to traffic guns and drugs while using his position to help them evade the law. Officials allege that 41-year-old Fernando Gomez began working for the La Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos when he was a detective for the Evanston Police Department.

Prosecutors claimed that he took guns from drug dealers and sent them to members of the cartel. He then joined the Drug Enforcement Administration and became a special agent specifically so he could help the cartel avoid any investigations by the agency. 

“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. But as alleged, Gomez joined the DEA to betray those laws, and to help narcotics traffickers evade detection by law enforcement," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement announcing the charges. 

Gomez was charged with one count of participating in a narcotics conspiracy involving the distribution of five kilograms or more of cocaine, and 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.  

If convicted, Gomez could be sentenced to life in prison. 

Photo: Getty Images