DEA Star Informant Busted for Extorting Drug Lords With Fake Plea Deals

Jorge "Boliche" Hernández, a longtime DEA informant once considered vital to major drug busts, has been arrested for allegedly extorting millions from drug traffickers by promising fake plea deals and lenient sentences he couldn't deliver.

Hernández, 57, spent two decades as one of the DEA's most prolific informants, helping federal agents bring down smugglers, corrupt officials, and international criminals across the Western Hemisphere, according to ABC News.

Known for his deep ties to underworld figures, Hernández was so valuable that agents once gave him an office phone and desk inside a federal task force. But his record was never clean—he'd previously been dropped by the DEA in 2008 for threatening to expose other informants unless they paid him off, the outlet noted.

According to an FBI complaint unsealed Wednesday, Hernández re-emerged in 2020 with a new scheme: posing as a paralegal who could reduce sentences or influence extradition outcomes for powerful traffickers in Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

The man allegedly demanded $1 million from each of six targets, collecting payment in the form of cash, jewelry, real estate, and cars by falsely promising that they'd serve their U.S. prison terms under house-arrest-like conditions. However, none of the promises were real, and as frustration grew, Hernández allegedly deflected blame onto defense attorneys.

Hernández remains in custody following his initial court appearance in Fort Lauderdale. His lawyer, Nestor Menendez, declined to comment. Meanwhile, he is still serving a probation sentence for a previous money laundering conspiracy conviction tied to Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab, himself connected to top officials in Nicolás Maduro's regime.