In brief: Four members of a cocaine trafficking and money-laundering ring have been sentenced at Jersey’s Royal Court following an investigation by the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service. The operation’s ringleader received eleven and a half years, while three associates received shorter terms for money-laundering. Two further suspects remain at large abroad.
The Ring and the Power Bank
It is not every day that a battery charger brings down a drug trafficking network, but that is precisely what happened in Jersey. The Jersey Evening Post reports that Javier Oswaldo Ospino Gomez, aged 30, was sentenced to eleven and a half years in prison at the Royal Court on Friday, having played what the court described as “a central role” in an enterprise that had operated for several years, with numerous successful importations before Customs officers finally caught up with it.
The breakthrough came in April 2025, when a courier arrived in Jersey carrying a power bank. Customs officers examined and x-rayed the device before returning it to him, then placed both the courier and Gomez under surveillance. The following day, Gomez collected the courier at Green Street roundabout, the pair switched vehicles twice, and Gomez changed his T-shirt and put on a hat in what the court heard was an attempt to evade surveillance. They were arrested outside Gomez’s home in St Saviour.
A search of the Audi TT initially used by the pair uncovered £9,740 in a rucksack on the rear passenger seat, cocaine traces on the boot lining, and digital scales hidden beneath the floor. The drugs inside the power bank itself, however, went undetected until July 2025, when Gomez requested its return from the seized vehicle. An officer grew suspicious about its weight, the device was opened, and 239.72 grams of cocaine at a purity of 82 per cent were found inside. Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit described the importation method as “brazen”.
Sentences and Defendants
Gomez’s mother, Mariela Josefina Gomez Marquez, aged 55, and associate Angel Daniel Gonzalez Quesada, aged 35, were each jailed for three years for money-laundering offences. Alan Patrick Vieira Rodrigues, aged 29, received two and a half years. The case, known as Operation Mink, was brought by the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service. Commissioner Patricia Lees presided, with Jurats Christensen, Averty and Opfermann.
Gomez, Rodrigues and Quesada all pleaded guilty. Marquez was convicted after a trial in which she maintained she did not know or suspect that her son’s money came from drugs, though Commissioner Lees questioned whether she might benefit from a house bought in Venezuela. Gomez had arranged cocaine distribution, paid for the courier’s travel, deposited criminal cash into his own accounts, and entered money-laundering arrangements with all three co-defendants.
Defence advocates made a range of mitigating arguments. Advocate Darry Robinson described Gomez’s difficult upbringing in Venezuela, where a cousin with whom he lived was murdered, and noted that his prison behaviour had been “exemplary” and that he had raised £2,000 for mental health support. Advocate James Bell argued that Rodrigues’s role was limited to laundering criminal proceeds, that he had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and that he had stopped offending of his own volition at the end of 2024, months before the operation was uncovered. Advocate James Corbett said Quesada had “fallen into” money-laundering through his friendship with Gomez and had used his time in custody to gain qualifications in mathematics and English. Advocate Ian Jones noted that Marquez was of previous good character with a good work record.
Two individuals connected to the case remain at large abroad, with warrants issued for their arrest.
Source: Jersey Evening Post
