A Miami nurse, a McLaren and drugs smuggled by spraying on paper are connected, feds say

A Miami federal court criminal complaint says a prison nurse smuggled drugs in spray form on legal documents. The payment for the alleged criminal courier service: money and use of an inmate’s Rolls-Royce, McLaren and Lamborghini.

Ruben Montanez-Mirabal, 32, is charged with one count of bribery, providing or possessing contraband in prison and possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Montanez-Mirabal posted $250,000 bond. He’ll enter a plea at his first formal court appearance scheduled for Dec. 8.

Legal documents worth $1,500 per page?

The complaint written by FBI special agent Matthew Abbate says an inmate at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami, 33 NE Fourth St., told the Department of Justice-Office of the Inspector General that Montanez-Mirabal was smuggling controlled substances into the prison.

The investigation, the complaint said, led to an inmate who the complaint calls “CHS1.”

CHS1, in for violating supervised release after his wire fraud conviction, didn’t cooperate out of altruism. The complaint said CHS1 wanted “favorable consideration in connection with other crimes for which he/she is under investigation, including firearms possession and Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud” and wanted to stay in a South Florida federal prison.

CHS1 told investigators that a smuggling arrangement was made with Montanez-Mirabal after learning the nurse did some smuggling for another inmate. That felonious ferrying, CHS1 said, included ”spray,” legal documents drenched with what Abbate believes was K2 in liquefied form. K2 or “Spice,” the DEA says, is a synthetic designer drug that acts like THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

CHS1 said Montanez-Mirabal brought 40 pages of “spray” into the prison in February 2022, $60,000 retail value of the drug at $1,500 per sheet. CHS1 told investigators the nurse was paid $1,500 cash and with the use of “one of CHS1’s high-end vehicles.” In March, CHS1 said Montanez-Mirabal was paid $6,000 for his service.

On March 2, Abbate wrote in the complaint, he and Federal Bureau of Prison investigators watched a March 1 video of Montanez-Mirabal entering a mop closet on FDC-Miami’s ninth floor while appearing to try to hide a “cylindrical object underneath his vest.”

BOP investigators, the complaint said, immediately searched the mop closet and found 37 discolored pages, held together by rubber bands and hidden under a shelving unit. Abbate submitted the pages to the FBI laboratory, which said a page had ADB-Butinaca, a designer drug.

That, the complaint said, matched what CHS1 later told investigators about Montanez-Mirabal leaving the drug documents and, sometimes, cigarettes via a dead drop under shelves in a storage closet.

“CHS1 stated that as part of his/her responsibilities within the prison,he/she would clean the facility through his/her role as an orderly and would therefore have access to that closet,” the complaint said. “CHS1 would then pick up the contraband and distribute it.”

When CHS1 talked to investigators in August about what cars other than a Rolls-Royce were used to pay Montanez-Mirabal, the complaint said, the inmate said the nurse “asked CHS1 to arrange for him to be able to use a Lamborghini and a McLaren.”

The complaint says Montanez-Mirabal’s Instagram account contained a message conversation on Jan. 30 and 31 that included the nurse sending a picture of himself inside an orange Lamborghini followed by (translated from Spanish) “my ride.” He tells the friend that “they already lent him the orange Lamborghini, and he then mentions a McLaren, and that ‘This week they are giving me a Rolls-Royce.’”

When the friend says something about how much it must cost to use, the complaint said, Montanez-Mirabal said, “Absolutely nothing” and “it’s all about having the right contact.”