U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones Marks First Year of Transformation, Historic Results, and National Leadership in Southern District of Florida

<div class="align-center entity-type-media entity-bundle-image media--image--s05 entity-image-1457796"> <div class="field__item img_wrp"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/d05/public/2026-08/jason_reding_quinones_fls-9744-2.jpg?itok=DK2MyOva" width="500" height="750" alt="Headshot of U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quinones"> </div> </div> <p class="text-align-justify">MIAMI – One year after taking the oath of office as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason A. Reding Quiñones today marked a year of institutional transformation, historic prosecutions, and measurable results across one of the nation’s largest and most complex federal districts.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Reding Quiñones was sworn in on August 13, 2025, following his nomination by President Donald J. Trump and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. He was the first U.S. Attorney confirmed during President Trump’s second administration.</p><p class="text-align-justify">From his first day in office, Reding Quiñones established three guiding principles for the Southern District of Florida: <strong>Protect Americans. Restore Impartial Justice. Defend the Rule of Law.</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">Within his first month, Reding Quiñones reorganized the Criminal Division to sharpen its focus on the threats facing South Florida and the nation. Over the following year, the Office hired 77 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 38 professional staff — 115 new employees — and reduced vacancies by 34 percent. The Office further expanded its enforcement capacity by bringing aboard 47 Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 20 detailees&nbsp;from partner agencies and other components of the Department of Justice.</p><p class="text-align-justify">At the same time, the Office increased immigration defendants charged by more than 28 percent, rose to #1 in the nation in white-collar caseload and #1 in Homeland Security Task Force-related caseload, ranked #3 nationally in national-security caseload, and collected more than $160 million&nbsp;in restitution, fines, assessments, and civil recoveries, before accounting for forfeitures. The office also ranked third among the 18 extra-large U.S. Attorney’s Offices in case complexity.</p><p class="text-align-justify">“Leadership is measured by results and by the institution you build to sustain them,” said U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones. “In one year, we reorganized this Office, hired 115 prosecutors and professional staff, reduced vacancies by more than a third, built new enforcement capabilities, strengthened our partnerships at every level of law enforcement, and delivered historic results across the full range of our mission. We did not choose between priorities. We built the capacity to pursue all of them.”</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>CASES OF HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">During Reding Quiñones’s first year, the Southern District of Florida prosecuted cases of extraordinary national and historical significance: from an attempted presidential assassination, to the assassination of a foreign head of state, to alleged murders committed by a hostile regime three decades ago, to a new prosecution of one of the Nicolás Maduro regime’s most prominent financial operatives.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>Ryan Routh: Life for Attempted Assassination of President Trump</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">In February, Ryan Wesley Routh was sentenced to life imprisonment plus seven years&nbsp;for attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.</p><p class="text-align-justify">A federal jury convicted Routh on all five counts charged in the indictment, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and firearms offenses. Attorney General Pamela Bondi at the time described Routh’s conduct as not only an attack on President Trump, but a direct assault on the nation’s democratic system.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The prosecution underscored a fundamental principle of the Office’s mission: political violence has no place in the U.S., and those who attempt to use violence to alter the nation’s democratic process will face the full force of federal law.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>Jovenel Moïse Assassination</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">In May, a federal jury in Miami convicted four defendants for their roles in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages were convicted of offenses including conspiracy to provide material support resulting in death, providing material support resulting in death, conspiracy to kill and kidnap outside the U.S., and expedition against a friendly nation. Intriago was convicted of additional export-related offenses.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>Raúl Castro and Brothers to the Rescue</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">In May, the U.S. unsealed a historic superseding indictment charging Raúl Castro and five other Cuban regime defendants&nbsp;for their alleged roles in the February 24, 1996, shootdown of two unarmed U.S. civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue over international waters.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The attack killed Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The charges followed renewed work by the Office’s Cuba Prosecution Working Group and represent a significant step in the three-decade pursuit of accountability for the killings.</p><p class="text-align-justify">As Reding Quiñones said when announcing the indictment: “The passage of time does not erase murder.”</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>Alex Saab: A New Case and Return to U.S. Court</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also developed a new federal criminal case against Alex Nain Saab Moran, a longtime financial operative of Maduro’s regime.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Saab had previously been prosecuted in the Southern District of Florida before receiving executive clemency by President Biden and being returned to Venezuela in December 2023.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Under Reding Quiñones’s leadership, federal prosecutors and the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) developed a new case, secured a new indictment, and brought Saab back before a federal court in Miami. On May 18, Saab made his initial appearance after the indictment was unsealed.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The new indictment charges Saab with participating in an alleged international money-laundering conspiracy involving Venezuela’s government-controlled food program and oil. Prosecutors allege that Saab and others bribed Venezuelan officials to secure lucrative food contracts, misrepresented the nature and source of food imported into Venezuela, and used an international financial network to launder proceeds from the scheme.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The charges are allegations, and Saab is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Together, the Routh, Moïse, Castro, and Saab matters illustrate the breadth and significance of cases entrusted to the Southern District, from protecting the American democratic process to pursuing international terrorism, foreign-regime actors, transnational corruption, and political assassination.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>TRANSFORMING THE OFFICE, BUILDING CAPACITY, AND STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIPS</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">Those results came during a year of significant institutional change. Within weeks of taking office, Reding Quiñones reorganized the Criminal Division to better align prosecutors and supervisors with the district’s principal enforcement threats. The Office subsequently created new enforcement capabilities, strengthened coordination with federal law enforcement, and undertook one of the most aggressive recruiting efforts in its history.</p><p class="text-align-justify">During the year, the Office hired 77 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 38 professional staff — 115 new employees in less than 12 months — and reduced vacancies by 34 percent. The Office also added 47 Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 20 detailees, significantly expanding the prosecutorial and enforcement resources available to the district.</p><p class="text-align-justify">At the same time, Reding Quiñones made strengthening law-enforcement partnerships a central focus of the Office. The Southern District of Florida deepened its relationships with Department of Justice components and federal law-enforcement agencies, partners across other federal departments, and state and local law-enforcement agencies throughout South Florida. Those partnerships expanded information sharing, embedded prosecutors and partner personnel alongside one another, and enabled coordinated operations targeting violent crime, transnational criminal organizations, immigration offenses, fraud, foreign threats, and other shared enforcement priorities.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>LEADING THE NATION ACROSS THE FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT MISSION</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The institutional transformation was accompanied by national leadership across multiple enforcement areas.</p><p class="text-align-justify">As of June 30, the Southern District of Florida ranked:</p><ul><li data-list-item-id="e5aee74fc6e9a70e41a20c76c14b36879"><p class="text-align-justify">#1 nationally in white-collar cases;</p></li><li data-list-item-id="e45d4c727de669e2a2f57a453c05cb7f1"><p class="text-align-justify">#1 nationally in HSTF-related cases;</p></li><li data-list-item-id="e4ecaf067ae53a50ad4056904181bc7af"><p class="text-align-justify">#3 nationally in national-security cases;&nbsp;and</p></li><li data-list-item-id="eb7cea2a161cedb5d2eae4b26325c8d06"><p class="text-align-justify">#3 in case complexity among the nation’s 18 extra-large U.S. Attorney’s Offices.</p></li></ul><p class="text-align-justify">The breadth of those rankings is significant. While expanding immigration enforcement, the Office simultaneously carried the nation’s leading white-collar and HSTF-related workloads and one of its leading national-security workloads.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>SECURING THE BORDER AND DISMANTLING TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">In September 2025, Reding Quiñones created the Border and Immigration Crimes Enforcement Section (BICE), a specialized prosecution section designed to strengthen South Florida’s federal immigration and border-security enforcement.</p><p class="text-align-justify">BICE brought immigration, human-smuggling, narcotics, fraud, and violent-crime expertise together in a coordinated structure working closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys from DHS also serve alongside career federal prosecutors in BICE.</p><p class="text-align-justify">During Reding Quiñones’s first year, the number of immigration defendants charged increased by more than 28 percent&nbsp;compared with the preceding 12 months.</p><p class="text-align-justify">BICE and partner agencies pursued high-speed maritime smuggling ventures, overloaded vessels, kidnapping and extortion schemes, illegal reentry, immigration fraud, and combined narcotics-and-human-smuggling operations. In one prosecution, federal authorities interdicted vessels carrying 168 kilograms of cocaine and 31 unauthorized migrants.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also expanded efforts to protect the integrity of American citizenship through denaturalization proceedings involving individuals alleged to have concealed fraud, human-rights violations, child exploitation, espionage, and other serious misconduct.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Among those actions, the Department filed suit to revoke the citizenship of Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador convicted of serving as an unregistered agent of Cuba, and Philippe Bien-Aime, the former mayor of North Miami. Most recently, a jury convicted Tania Rosa Rodriguez of unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship after concealing her involvement in a healthcare fraud scheme.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM VIOLENT CRIME, FENTANYL, AND PREDATORS</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office continued aggressive enforcement against violent offenders, firearms traffickers, fentanyl dealers, child predators, human traffickers, and those who threaten public officials and law-enforcement officers.</p><p class="text-align-justify">In July, the Office announced the results of Operation Hurricane,&nbsp;charging 46 federal and state defendants&nbsp;as part of a multi-agency enforcement surge targeting repeat violent offenders in Palm Beach County. The operation seized 94 firearms&nbsp;along with ammunition and significant quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and crack cocaine.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Alfonso Guerrero&nbsp;was sentenced to life in federal prison for distributing the fentanyl that killed a Vero Beach man and continuing to traffic fentanyl only days later.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Jeffrey Allen Holden, already imprisoned for rape, received a federal life sentence for using a contraband cellphone and false identity to manipulate a 12-year-old South Florida child into producing child sexual abuse material.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also prosecuted human traffickers who preyed on foster youth, violent narcotics organizations, firearms traffickers, kidnappers, armed offenders, and individuals accused or convicted of threatening senior government officials.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>PROTECTING TAXPAYERS, VICTIMS, AND THE AMERICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office’s #1 national white-collar ranking&nbsp;was reflected in major prosecutions spanning health-care fraud, investment fraud, public-benefits fraud, cryptocurrency, procurement fraud, money laundering, and corruption.</p><p class="text-align-justify">In the Department’s 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, the Southern District of Florida charged 12 defendants in alleged schemes involving more than $4 billion in fraudulent claims. Nationwide, the takedown charged 455 defendants in alleged schemes involving more than $6.5 billion.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Other significant results included a 20-year sentence in a $94 million international investment fraud scheme; a guilty plea in a scheme involving more than $52 million in fraudulent Medicare claims; prosecutions involving $35 million in Medicare Advantage fraud and more than $19 million in alleged SNAP fraud; and cases involving cryptocurrency, pandemic-relief fraud, fraudulent nursing credentials, identity theft, and fraud targeting U.S. military operations.</p><p class="text-align-justify">During the anniversary period, the Office collected more than $160 million&nbsp;in restitution, fines, assessments, and civil recoveries, before including forfeiture results.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>DEFENDING AMERICA FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE AND CORRUPTION</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">South Florida’s position as a gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean gives the district a unique responsibility in cases involving hostile foreign regimes, foreign influence, international corruption, sanctions evasion, money laundering, and transnational criminal organizations.</p><p class="text-align-justify">In May, a federal jury convicted former U.S. Congressman David Rivera&nbsp;and lobbyist Esther Nuhfer of secretly acting as unregistered agents of Venezuela in connection with a $50 million contract. Rivera was convicted of conspiracy and substantive Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, money-laundering conspiracy, and transactions involving criminally derived property.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also charged the corporate entity commonly known as Smartmatic, three company executives, and the former chairman of the Philippine Commission on Elections in an alleged scheme involving more than $1 million in bribes connected to Philippine election contracts.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Other international enforcement included HSTF’s Operation Mousetrap, which charged defendants connected to an international cocaine-trafficking network and a 540-kilogram cocaine seizure in Miami.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also pursued Venezuela-related financial crime, ransomware and cybercrime, sanctions violations, foreign-agent offenses, international money laundering, and other threats to the U.S.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>PUBLIC CORRUPTION, FOREIGN INFLUENCE, AND THE RULE OF LAW</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office pursued cases involving public officials, corporate actors, foreign agents, and others without regard to status or influence.</p><p class="text-align-justify">During the year, federal prosecutors pursued cases involving current and former public officials, corporate executives, foreign-government actors, violent offenders, sophisticated financial criminals, and ordinary defendants alike.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Those matters included the indictment of then-U.S. Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick&nbsp;and others for allegedly stealing $5 million in FEMA disaster funds and related campaign-finance offenses; the Rivera convictions; the Smartmatic prosecution; and cases against powerful foreign-regime actors.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Charged defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also focused on strengthening the pipeline of future public servants at every stage; from high school and college students to law students preparing to enter the profession. In March, the Office launched its inaugural Federal Prosecutor Leadership Academy, a two-day program designed to introduce high school students to public service, the federal justice system, and careers in federal prosecution and law enforcement. The inaugural class welcomed 33 students from 10 Miami-Dade County high schools, giving students direct access to federal prosecutors, law-enforcement agents, and members of the judiciary.</p><p class="text-align-justify">The Office also renewed its participation in the Department of Justice’s Pathways Program, creating paid opportunities for college students to work inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office and gain firsthand experience with the Department’s mission and the day-to-day work of federal public service.&nbsp;</p><p class="text-align-justify">At the law-school level, the Office strengthened its longstanding law clerk program, expanding programming, mentorship, and substantive opportunities for law students to work alongside federal prosecutors and experience the practice of federal law.</p><p class="text-align-justify">Together, these efforts reflect a long-term investment in the institution: recruiting and developing talented public servants today while building a stronger pipeline of prosecutors and professionals for tomorrow.</p><p class="text-align-justify"><strong>ONE YEAR OF TRANSFORMATION. THE MISSION CONTINUES.</strong></p><p class="text-align-justify">The first year transformed the Office’s structure, expanded its prosecutorial capacity, reduced vacancies by more than a third, increased immigration enforcement by more than 28 percent, produced national leadership in white-collar, HSTF-related, and national-security work, and delivered historic prosecutions with consequences reaching from South Florida neighborhoods to Washington, Havana, Caracas, and Port-au-Prince.</p><p class="text-align-justify">“I am proud of what this team accomplished, but this anniversary is not a victory lap,” said Reding Quiñones. “The credit belongs to the career prosecutors and professional staff of this Office and to our extraordinary federal, state, and local law-enforcement partners. Our mission in year two is the same as it was on day one: <strong>Protect Americans. Restore Impartial Justice. Defend the Rule of Law.</strong>”</p><p class="text-align-center">###</p>