His job was to secure boats for drug trafficking shipments. Now he’s a convicted felon
A national of the Dominican Republic who helped facilitate the transport of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and was arrested in Miami nearly three years ago has been convicted on felony drug trafficking conspiracy charges by a federal jury in the District of Columbia.
Cesar Gómez Almonte, aka Jhonny Gómez and Johnny Gómez, 51, was convicted Thursday of conspiracy to import five kilograms or more of cocaine into the United States. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20, 2024, and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine his sentencing after considering the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
The use of go-fast boats to move cocaine and other drugs through the Dominican Republic is a major part of the drug trade. U.S. prosecutors said Gómez, arrested on Dec. 12, 2020 at Miami International Airport, was a member of a drug trafficking network that operated by covering up the true ownership of the boats it used to transport cocaine from the Caribbean to the United States.
He was tasked with searching for and acquiring new boats the network could use for future drug ventures, to coordinate the straw transfer of a boat used in a prior drug venture and to broker the use of a boat for a cocaine shipment knowing that the cocaine was bound for the United States.
