Federal Bureau of Prisons Nurse Sentenced for Contraband Smuggling and Bribery Conspiracy

MIAMI – Ruben Montanez-Mirabal, 33, who worked as a registered nurse for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) at the Federal Detention Center – Miami (“FDC-Miami”) has been sentenced to 72 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to receive bribes and introduce prohibited objects, including controlled substances, into a federal prison, and to introducing prohibited objects into a federal prison, arising from his illegal deliveries of contraband to inmates at FDC-Miami.

From November 2021 through late August 2022, Montanez-Mirabal solicited and obtained illegal payments from FDC-Miami inmates in exchange for violating his official duties and FDC-Miami rules by bringing in and delivering to them prohibited objects, including sheets of paper that were soaked with synthetic cannabinoids. In exchange for this illegal activity, Montanez-Mirabal accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from these inmates and their associates. Along with these payments, Montanez-Mirabal also solicited and received other things of value from inmates, including the free use of a Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce.

Montanez-Mirabal would bring these drug-soaked pages and other prohibited items into FDC-Miami and then either deliver them directly to the inmates or hide them in places where the inmate paying him would be able to recover the contraband. Those inmates would then re-sell the pages to other inmates at a rate of $1,500 per page. Montanez-Mirabal made a number of these deliveries, providing over 100 drug-soaked pages, worth more than $150,000 in total, to inmates inside FDC-Miami in exchange for the bribes he received. 

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI, Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge James Boyersmith, Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (DOJ-OIG), Miami Field Office, announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez.

U.S. Attorney Lapointe commended the investigative efforts of the FBI’s Miami Area Corruption Task Force and DOJ-OIG in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward N. Stamm prosecuted it.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 23-cr-20051.

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