10 August 2026
Operation Mink is a Jersey Customs & Immigration Service, JCIS, investigation into a Jersey-based syndicate involved in importing cocaine into the Island.
As a result of the operation, 55-year-old Venezuelan national Mariela Gomez Marquez has been found guilty, following a four-day trial in the Royal Court, of laundering the cash proceeds of her son's drug trafficking activities.
Marquez's son, Javier Gomez, who was born in Venezuela, has already pleaded guilty to a number of offences, including the distribution of drugs. This involved meeting a suspected drug courier and handling the cash profits generated through his criminal activity. In addition, Gomez pleaded guilty to Perverting the Course of Justice after attempting to take possession of a consignment of cocaine before JCIS officers located the drugs.
Operation Mink was a complex investigation that began in December 2024 using a range of investigative tactics. During the lengthy investigation, officers from the Customs & Immigration Investigation Unit, CIU, gathered evidence of Gomez collecting a suspected drug courier in his Audi TT the day after the courier arrived in Jersey, in April 2025. Within minutes the two men exchanged vehicles several times leaving the drugs and the money in the Audi TT, they were both arrested by JCIS officers shortly afterwards.
A search of the first vehicle used by Gomez to meet the courier revealed several items, including £11,000 in cash, weighing scales bearing traces of cocaine, and a portable battery power bank. Further examination by JCIS officers established that the power bank was, in fact, a sophisticated concealment device containing almost a quarter of a kilogram of cocaine. Gomez was subsequently charged with drug offences in July 2025.
Following the arrests in April 2025, CIU officers carried out a financial investigation. This identified evidence that, during the two years prior to his arrest, two of Gomez's associates had sent him regular sums of money totalling more than £39,000. The two associates, Angel Quesada and Alan Rodriguez, were arrested and interviewed by CIU officers. At the time of his arrest, Quesada was found in possession of £7,560 in cash.
The financial investigation also established that Gomez's mother, Marquez, had played a role in laundering the syndicate's criminal proceeds. All three individuals were charged with money laundering offences in November 2025. Quesada and Rodriguez pleaded guilty to the offences, while Marquez pleaded not guilty.
Investigators also uncovered the purchase of high-value mobile phones, tablets, and watches, which are believed to have been exported as a means of transferring the proceeds of crime.
The investigation showed that Gomez handed more than £37,000 in cash to his mother between August 2024 and April 2025. He instructed her to deposit the money into her bank account and then transfer the majority of it back to him via bank transfer. During this period, Marquez made 176 separate cash deposits, sometimes making as many as four deposits in a single day.
During the trial, Marquez maintained her innocence, stating that she neither knew nor suspected that the money originated from criminal activity. She told the court that Gomez had explained the funds were generated through his self-employed work as a second-hand car dealer.
All offenders in this case are now awaiting sentencing.
Senior Manager Luke Goddard said: "Operation Mink demonstrates the ability of JCIS officers to successfully conduct complex investigations targeting the key members of criminal syndicates operating in the Island."
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