BY JAY WEAVER
In a rare concession, a veteran
Miami-Dade police officer charged with smuggling loads of cocaine, buying
weapons for traffickers and directing a murder plot against rival drug dealers
was granted a bond Monday as he awaits a federal trial in New Jersey.
Lt. Ralph Mata, 45, was allowed
to post a $500,000 bond under an agreement struck between the U.S. attorney’s
office in Newark and the officer’s defense attorney — but with heavy strings
attached. Mata must make a nonrefundable down payment of $37,500 on one half of
the bond, and a refundable payment of $25,000 on a second half to ensure his
appearance at trial.
Mata, as part of the terms,
must prove that both down payments are clean — not from drug proceeds. He could
be released later Monday or Tuesday.
His arrest last Wednesday
shocked the law enforcement community because he was known as a strait-laced
police officer, who most recently worked in Miami-Dade’s internal affairs unit
investigating cops suspected of wrongdoing.
Mata, who was relieved of duty
with pay, was charged with conspiring to smuggle more than five kilos of
cocaine into the United States. If convicted, the offense carries up to life in
prison. Normally, defendants charged with that crime receive no bond before
trial.
Mata’s defense attorney, Bruce
Fleisher, said after the hearing that federal prosecutors in New Jersey agreed
to the bond while “taking into consideration his 22 years of service as a
police officer and his good family.” Mata’s wife and other family members
attended the bond hearing.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry
Garber accepted the terms and required Mata to be confined to his Pembroke
Pines home with an electronic monitor 24 hours a day. He will be allowed to
leave his home only for medical, religious or court appearances. He also must
surrender his passport and firearms.
Mata, who was cuffed at the
wrists, waists and ankles during Monday’s hearing, will make his first
appearance in Newark federal court the week of April 21, Fleisher said. An
indictment is pending.
Mata's arrest on a criminal
complaint stunned the police department, where he has worked since 1992. Among
his duties: stints as a canine officer and a lieutenant in Miami Gardens, where
he worked on busting drug and prostitution rings.
He has been with internal
affairs, known officially as the Professional Compliance Bureau, since March
2010. The unit is dedicated to rooting out misconduct and crimes of fellow
officers.
Federal prosecutors say Mata —
who went by the nickname “The Milk Man” — helped plan the execution of two
rival drug dealers, even proposing that his “contacts” could dress up like cops
and pull over the men before killing them. But the plan was eventually
scrapped.
He purchased firearms and flew
them to the Dominican Republic for the group, according to the FBI, accompanied
a suitcase full of drug money to the island, used his position as a cop to give
secret intelligence to the group, and suggested ways to smuggle in dope through
Miami.
After his arrest, more details
emerged about the drug smugglers who apparently worked with the feds in
building the case against Mata as their associate in Miami-Dade.
According to federal court
records, Juan C. Arias, Martin Nuñez-Lora and Persio Nuñez were arrested in
April 2013.
All have since pleaded guilty
to conspiring to distribute cocaine, although none has yet been sentenced,
according to court records.
The extent of any cooperation
with the government against Mata is unclear, although it could help persuade a
judge to give the trio lighter sentences.
For years, agents say, the
smugglers had been importing drugs in shipping containers containing bananas
from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
In January 2012, investigators
seized $400,000 from the Bergen County, N.J., home of Arias. It was that
seizure, according to federal court documents, that led the smugglers to
suspect one of their own had robbed them.
But Mata, according to police,
checked with his fellow law enforcement officers and confirmed that it was
indeed a Drug Enforcement Administration bust, even confirming the name of the
agent on the case.
Then, in April 2013,
investigators tracked a shipment of bananas and drugs arriving at a “port in
Florida” that was later driven by truck to a rented warehouse in Passaic
County, N.J.
Investigators covertly listened
to phone calls in which the group discussed the shipment.
When the truck arrived in New
Jersey three days later, agents swooped in, arresting Nuñez, Nuñez-Lora and
Arias at a nearby hotel.
Another shipment bound for New
Jersey — 87 kilograms of cocaine alongside the bananas — was seized in Florida
the same day.
As word spread about the
arrests, the smugglers' associates reached out to Mata, who immediately began
checking with local sources within law enforcement to find out what had
happened, according to a criminal complaint.
Lawyers for Arias and
Nuñez-Lora could not be reached for comment. A lawyer for Nuñez declined to
comment.
As part of the federal plea
deal, Arias has to give up a condo at the posh Icon Brickell building, land in
Opa-locka, a 40-foot yacht and a Bentley luxury car. Nuñez must also give up a
unit at Icon.
Miami Herald staff writer David
Ovalle contributed to this report.
