States Attorney.

Juan A. Gonzalez

Juan Gonzalez - State's Attorney for Southern Florida

United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida

Under the Vacancies Reform Act, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez now serves as the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida until a successor is nominated by President-elect Joe Biden and is subsequently confirmed by the United States Senate. The 23-year veteran of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gonzalez, will temporarily take over in the highest position in the Office as U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan steps down on March 27, 2021. Acting U.S. Attorney General Monty Wilkinson was responsible for sending out the request of President Joe Biden for the remaining 55 presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorneys to submit their letter of resignation as a part of the transition process from one administration to another. For the next 300 days following his appointment as interim Top Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida, Juan A. Gonzalez will lead the third-largest office in the nation, with a staff comprising of 275 Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

 

Appointment

By virtue of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan A. “Tony” Gonzalez will assume the role of interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official for the Southern District of Florida on March 28, 2021. He is expected to temporarily replace the outgoing U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan, who is departing from the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the request of President-elect Joe Biden. On February 9, 2021, Top Federal Prosecutor Orshan, along with the rest of the remaining 55 Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys, has been tasked by Acting U.S. Attorney Robert M. “Monty” Wilkinson to vacate their posts as a part of the tradition during the process of transitioning from one administration to another. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan A. Gonzalez has been called upon to hold the highest position in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida for a maximum period of 300 days, or until such time that the Biden Administration has successfully nominated and confirmed a successor for the position of United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

 

Educational Background

A graduate of the University of Miami, Acting U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez earned his undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1988. He subsequently attended the University of Miami School of Law in 1991, from where he received his Juris Doctorate in 1991.

 

Legal Career – Office of the Miami-Dade County State Attorney

At the age of 23, U.S. Attorney Gonzalez launched his professional career in the legal field. He became one of the youngest lawyers in the Miami-Dade County State Attorney Office, where he spent the next seven years serving under the Racketeering/Organized Crime and Public Corruption Unit. U.S. Attorney Gonzalez spent four years being cross-designated as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida under the same unit in those seven years. With this, U.S. Attorney Tony Gonzalez was able to specialize in long-term wiretap investigations involving corrupt police offices and organized crime figures and has also been able to successfully try a number of organized crimes in federal court.

 

Legal Career – Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida

Joining the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida for the first time in 1998, Top Federal Prosecutor Tony Gonzalez was initially hired as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Appellate Section of the Office. After a year of serving under the Appellate Section, in the year 1999, Acting U.S. Attorney Tony Gonzalez was moved to the Narcotics Section, where he was immediately assigned under the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. From here onward, interim Top Federal Prosecutor Gonzalez has been appointed to hold various supervisory positions, including being the Deputy Chief of the International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Directly commanding over the HIDTA Task Force for the next seven years, from 2002 to 2009, U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez remained in the position of Deputy Chief of Narcotics, prior to being delegated as the HIDTA Operations Coordinator for both the Miami-Dade and Broward County HIDTA Units in 2009.

Given his level of expertise and breadth and experience in matters involving the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Operations, U.S. Attorney Gonzalez was later called upon to take on the dual roles of being the HIDTA Operations Coordinator and the Deputy Chief of Narcotics in charge of HIDTA. He remained in both capacities for approximately eight years, from 2011 to 2019, from which point he was named as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Since 2002, Acting U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez continually represented the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida on the HIDTA Executive Committee. He has served three times as its vice-chairman and greatly as the Committee’s chairman. Despite being appointed as the second-in-command in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official Tony Gonzalez managed to handle being the HIDTA Operations Coordinator.

 

Honors and Awards

A career prosecutor with over three decades of experience in the legal field and more than two decades of prosecutorial and managerial duties with a focus on HIDTA Operations, Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez has proven himself time and time again, especially in his work in the investigation and prosecution of an array of complex, high-profile criminal cases. He has earned numerous awards, including the Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, which he received in the year 2000 in recognition of his significant contribution to the prosecution of the two-week trial against Bordon et al. – a complex case involving money laundering and organized crime.

In 2007, U.S. Attorney Tony Gonzalez received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation, commending his work in the prosecution of the multi-defendant RICO conspiracy trial, which lasted for more than half a year due to the involvement of a number of arsons, acts of illegal gambling, money laundering, murders, and narcotics trafficking. This decade-long investigation and prosecution eventually led to the guilty verdict of eight murders, seven arsons that resulted in deaths, and a forfeiture verdict of $1.4 billion. The case as mentioned above against a criminal enterprise has been detailed in the T.J.cccccckrfrrnvtduhnfbnvutddbcjbfigeucietnvgfe

English true-crime novel: The Corporation, An Epic Story of the Cuban-American Underworld.

Among the honors and awards that Acting U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez received is the 2011 National HIDTA Prosecutor of the Year presented by the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Drug Czar); a second Director’s Award in 2012, in recognition of his prosecution of the complex, international money laundering case against Solorzano et al. that involved the Venezuelan parallel market; and the 2015 Exceptional Service Award presented by the National Association of Former United States Attorneys. On top of these, Top Federal Prosecutor Gonzalez has also been a three-time recipient of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) award, an Investigative Excellence Awardee of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and a highest honorary recipient of the IRS/CID Special Agent. Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez has also received numerous other awards and commendations from different government agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

Several Notable Prosecutions by Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez

Apart from the previously mentioned cases, Acting U.S. Attorney Tony Gonzalez has also handled several other notable investigations and prosecutions, including the trial against the Colombian Attorney General’s Director of Anticorruption – Gustavo Moreno Rivera; the recent seven-week trial of the Spanish drug lord Alvaro Lopez Tardon, who has received a 150-year prison term for money laundering; and the billion-dollar NTR/Elementals gold money-laundering prosecution. Top Federal Prosecutor Gonzalez was also the lead prosecutor in the case against the French national Gal Vallerius, also known as the Oxymonster – the senior moderator of the Dark Web drug marketplace called Dream Market.

 

Teaching Background

In addition to his work in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acting U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez also dedicated time to teaching as a faculty member at the National Advocacy Center, where he did some lectures at the Basic Trial Advocacy, Basic and Advanced Narcotics, Basic and Advanced Money Laundering, and Federal Sentencing Guidelines Seminars. A veteran in his line of work, U.S. Attorney Gonzalez is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist who is often requested to impart his knowledge via lectures domestically and abroad in the areas of international money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and transnational organized crime.

 

Office Jurisdiction

Currently leading the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida as its interim Chief Federal Law Enforcement Official, Acting U.S. Attorney Juan A. Gonzalez oversees the third-largest U.S. Attorney’s Office in the whole nation. He is responsible for leading a staff comprising over 275 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who are all dedicated to serving and protecting the Southern District of Florida. Upon his appointment, U.S. Attorney Gonzalez shared that he is looking forward to leading the Office in the enforcement of federal laws and the seeking of justice.

 

Statement from Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez

“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 Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez.

 

Contact Details of Attorney Gonzalez

Full Name: Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez
District/State: Southern District of Florida
Public email ID: N/A

Miami Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
99 N.E. 4th Street
Miami, Fl. 33132

(305) 961-9001
Main

(305) 530-7679
Fax

Ft. Lauderdale Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
500 E. Broward Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33394

(954) 356-7255
Main

(954) 356-7336
Fax

West Palm Beach Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
500 S.Australian Ave. Ste. 400
W. Palm Beach, Fl. 33401

(561) 820-8711
Main

(561) 820-8777
Fax

Fort Pierce Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
101 South U.S. 1
Suite 3100
Ft. Pierce, Fl. 34950

(772) 466-0899
Main

(772) 466-1020
Fax

Key West: Mail all correspondence to Miami Office

U.S. Attorney’s Office
301 Simonton Street
Key West, Fl. 33040

(305) 294-7070
Main

(305) 292-1423
Fax

Citizen Complaint Hotline

(305) 961-9173
Main

USAFLS-CitizenCompla@usdoj.gov
E-mail Address

Public Affairs/Press Office:

Marlene Rodriguez
Public Information Officer

(305) 961-9206
Main

(786) 360-9794
Cellular Number

Marlene.rodriguez@usdoj.gov
E-mail Address

 

Social Media Profiles of Juan Gonzalez

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Facebook

Username: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida
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YouTube

Username: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida
URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPBcmpTC3WtgzUqDfds4fWw

Twitter

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Tag: @SDFLnews
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Updated: August 31, 2021

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