Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez Becomes Acting U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Florida

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Miami, Florida – On March 28, 2021, Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez assumed the role of Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.  Mr. Gonzalez served as the District’s First Assistant United States Attorney prior to entering this new position.

“I look forward to leading the Office’s dedicated lawyers and staff as we continue to enforce our federal laws and seek justice on behalf of all South Florida residents,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez.

Mr. Gonzalez has been an Assistant United States Attorney in South Florida since 1998.  He is a career prosecutor who has held various supervisory positions with the office.  From 2002 to 2009, Mr. Gonzalez served as Deputy Chief of Narcotics in charge of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force (HIDTA). In 2009, Mr. Gonzalez assumed the position of HIDTA Operations Coordinator for both the Miami-Dade and Broward County HIDTA Units and, in 2011, he took the dual roles of HIDTA Operations Coordinator and Deputy Chief of Narcotics in charge of HIDTA.  He continued in those roles until 2019, when he was selected to serve as First Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.   

Throughout his federal career, Mr. Gonzalez has investigated and tried an array of complex, high-profile cases. In United States v. Battle, et al. for example, following a six-month trial, Mr. Gonzalez secured RICO conspiracy convictions and a $1.4 billion forfeiture verdict against members of a criminal enterprise charged with various murders, arsons, acts of illegal gambling, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking.

Other notable cases prosecuted by Mr. Gonzalez include securing a money laundering conviction and significant sentence against Spanish drug lord Alvaro Lopez Tardon, and United States v. Solorzano et al., where he prosecuted a complex international money laundering investigation involving the Venezuelan parallel market. Mr. Gonzalez also participated in the investigation and ultimate guilty plea of Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivera, the Colombian Attorney General’s Director of Anticorruption; was part of the prosecution team obtaining convictions in the billion-dollar NTR/Elemetals gold money laundering prosecutions; and was the lead prosecutor securing the conviction of French national Gal Vallerius a.k.a. Oxymonster, the senior moderator of the Dark Web drug marketplace Dream Market.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Gonzalez began his career as a prosecutor at the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office. Mr. Gonzalez spent most of his seven years in the State Attorney’s Office in the Racketeering/Organized Crime and Public Corruption Unit where he specialized in long-term, wiretap investigations of corrupt police officers and organized crime figures.  In that unit, Mr. Gonzalez spent four years as a cross-designated Special Assistant US Attorney (SAUSA) for the Southern District of Florida. As a SAUSA, Mr. Gonzalez successfully tried several organized crime cases in federal court.

Mr. Gonzalez is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and frequently lectures domestically and abroad in the areas of international money laundering, narcotics trafficking and trans-national organized crime. 

Mr. Gonzalez received his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1991, and his undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) from the University of Miami in 1988.

Under the Vacancies Reform Act, Mr. Gonzalez now serves as the Acting United States Attorney until a successor is nominated by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate.

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