Former prison nurse in Florida pleads guilty to contraband smuggling, bribery conspiracy

FLORIDA – A former Federal Bureau of Prisons nurse in Florida has pled guilty to contraband smuggling and bribery conspiracy related to bringing in and delivering prohibited objects and substances to prison inmates, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida (USAO).

Ruben Montanez-Mirabal, 33, of Miami-Dade, has pled guilty in federal district court to conspiring to commit bribery, conspiring to provide contraband in a federal prison, and providing contraband in a federal prison.

Montanez-Mirabal was a registered nurse who worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) at the Federal Detention Center – Miami (“FDC-Miami”) in downtown Miami from around November 2021 through late August 2022.

According to the USAO and the two-count information and facts admitted at the change of plea hearing, Montanez-Mirabal solicited and obtained illegal payments from FDC-Miami inmates in exchange for bringing in and delivering to them prohibited objects, including controlled substances that had been soaked into sheets of paper.

In exchange for violating his official duties by providing these drug-soaked papers and other prohibited items, Montanez-Mirabal said he 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, reportedly including the free use of a Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce, the USAO said.

Montanez-Mirabal would bring these prohibited items into FDC-Miami and then reportedly 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 reportedly would then re-sell the pages to other inmates at $1,500 per page.

Montanez-Mirabal admitted at the change of plea that he made a number of these deliveries for inmates, including one delivery where he was observed hiding 37 drug-soaked pages underneath a shelving unit in a mop closet accessible to the inmate paying him, the USAO said.

Investigators said they were able to recover these pages from the closet, and laboratory testing revealed that the pages were laced with a synthetic cannabinoid-controlled substance and had the defendant’s fingerprints on them.

Montanez-Mirabal also admitted that he was aware that inmates were reselling the pages for $1,500 each and that he delivered between 100 and 140 such pages to inmates inside FDC-Miami in exchange for the bribes he received, the USAO said.

United States District Judge Jose E. Martinez will sentence Montanez-Mirabal in Miami on May 16 at 11:30 a.m. Montanez-Mirabal faces up to 15 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, acting Special Agent in Charge Maged Behnam of the FBI Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge James Boyersmith, Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, Miami Field Office, announced the guilty plea.

FBI Miami and DOJ-OIG Miami are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward N. Stamm is prosecuting 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.