Former DEA Informant ‘Bowling Ball’ Charged with Extortion Scheme

Jorge Hernandez, a 57-year-old former DEA informant known as ‘Bowling Ball,’ has been charged with extorting major cocaine traffickers by posing as a paralegal and demanding bribes of cash, property, and other valuable goods. According to federal court documents, Hernandez spent the past 25 years helping the federal government dismantle drug trafficking networks, but his recent actions have turned him into a fugitive. The former informant is alleged to have approached drug runners from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, offering them the promise of lighter sentences in exchange for payments that allegedly helped him amass a fortune of between $4 and $6 million.

Beginning in 2020, Hernandez allegedly posed as a paralegal, obtaining a legitimate certification to meet with jailed suspects in unrecorded attorney visits. He allegedly told the traffickers that he would bring them ‘the best legal team in the United States’ and land sentences of just a few years in prison for suspects facing 10 years to life. The traffickers, some of whom were already awaiting extradition to the United States, were reportedly stunned by the offer, according to the criminal complaint. However, when the traffickers did not receive the lighter sentences he promised, he blamed the FBI and the traffickers’ own lawyers. Some of the traffickers even offered their mother’s house as collateral for his services, though he allegedly threatened their families if they did not pay up.

Hernandez is accused of taking bribes in the form of cash, vehicles, and real estate, with some payments allegedly reaching up to $200,000. In one instance, he reportedly told a trafficking suspect that ‘he should pay because freedom does not have a price.’ The alleged scheme has led to a criminal complaint that alleges Hernandez is responsible for taking in between $4 and $6 million. He is currently on federal probation until May 2027 for a money laundering conspiracy, according to court documents.