Wife of Former DEA Special Agent Sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering

On December 17, 2020, the wife of a former DEA Special Agent previously assigned to the DEA’s Cartagena Resident Office was sentenced to 60 months of probation and ordered to forfeit a Tiffany diamond ring for one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Nathalia Gomez-Irizarry, who is married to former DEA Special Agent Jose Irizarry, was sentenced in the Middle District of Florida.  Gomez-Irizarry and Irizarry pleaded guilty on September 14, 2020.  According to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, from no later than February 2011 through in or about October 2017, Gomez-Irizarry and Irizarry conspired to engage in an illegal scheme to misappropriate, launder, and spend funds belonging to the DEA; Gomez-Irizarry knowingly allowed her husband to use her identity to conduct banking and other commercial activity to carry out the illegal scheme; and Gomez-Irizarry received on behalf of her husband bribes and kickbacks totaling approximately $111,361.  Jose Irizarry is scheduled to be sentenced on March 4, 2021.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Miami Field Office, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration Office of Professional Responsibility.