By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A former police officer accused of joining the DEA so he could protect a violent Puerto Rican drug cartel has pleaded guilty.
Fernando Gomez, who infiltrated the DEA and was working in the Chicago field office, was arrested in December and charged with racketeering conspiracy for his alleged decade-long affiliation with the Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos. The gang, which imported vast shipments of cocaine into the U.S., was accused in the indictment of participating in at least eight drug-related killings in New York and Puerto Rico and smuggling thousands of kilograms of cocaine.
Gomez is accused of helping the gang beginning in 2006 when he was a detective with the city of Evanston.
Under a plea deal, the 42-year-old former U.S. Marine faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 21 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, The Associated Press reports.
