Johansel Moronta, Smuggling Contraband, New Jersey 2018

NEWARK, N.J. – Johansel Moronta, 27, of Linden, New Jersey, a former inmate at Fort Dix, has been charged with conspiring to use drones to smuggle contraband, including tobacco, cell phone chargers, and a cell phone, into the federal correctional facility at Fort Dix.

According to the complaint, Moronta, who was incarcerated at Fort Dix from April 2018 to March 2019, coordinated the drone drops with Adrian Goolcharran, Nicolo Denichilo, and Jason Arteaga Loayza, a/k/a “Juice,” and others. The contraband was delivered to inmates via unmanned aircrafts, or drones, piloted by Goolcharran.

On October 30, 2018, at approximately 1:40 a.m., Fort Dix officers observed a drone with fishing line hovering above the rooftop of an inmate housing unit. Officers found Moronta leaving a bathroom in the area where the bag of contraband dropped from the drone had been found, along with bolts that secured an open rooftop hatch used to access the delivery.

Moronta also coordinated other drone drops with Arteaga and Goolcharran. Location data from Goolcharran’s cell phone confirmed that Goolcharran’s cell phone was in the Fort Dix area during the early morning hours of October 24, 2018, and began to depart the area by about 1:54 a.m. that same morning.

Moronta is charged with one count of conspiring to smuggle contraband into the prison and to defraud the United States and one count of being a federal inmate possessing and obtaining, and attempting to possess and obtain, contraband. The offenses carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and maximum fine of $250,000 for the conspiracy count and one year in prison and $100,000 maximum fine for the possessing or obtaining contraband count.

Moronta will be scheduled to appear on a date to be determined by the court.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office credited agents of DOJ-OIG, New York Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Guido Modano; DOJ-OIG’s Cyber Investigations Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Keith Bonanno; and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Detachment 307 under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Keith Bonanno.

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