New court filings claim that the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was “intentionally and systematically” excluded for years from investigating a cocaine distribution ring in the Keys. But Sheriff Rick Ramsay is wholly refuting that idea, saying the new development is the culmination of brewing tensions between his office and a single FBI agent.
In May, prosecutors unsuccessfully attempted to revoke the $250,000 bond of 43-year-old John Strama Jr., the alleged head of the ring who was originally arrested in September 2024 roundup along with 26 co-defendants.
Court documents filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean T. McLaughlin in the denied motion cited numerous alleged violations of Strama’s release conditions, including continued drug trafficking activity, contact with co-defendants and reported attempts to threaten or intimidate potential witnesses or informants.
Of particular interest: a memorandum by U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Byrne in support of the bond revocation motion, in which a partially-redacted footnote claimed the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office was “intentionally and systematically excluded from the FBI’s multi-year underlying investigation.”
According to the memo, FBI special agent Matthew Ward suspected Strama was “tipped off” by an unnamed MCSO official who Ward had called on his way to a Metro PCS cell phone store in Marathon on April 17. Ward attempted to retrieve security camera footage of an alleged confrontation the day before between Strama and co-defendant Nyran Ross, who had recently pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
But about 30 minutes after Ward’s call to the MCSO official, the document said, Strama arrived at the store with Ward still inside. Minutes after Ward left the store, security footage shows, Strama entered, reportedly asking the clerk whether Ward had inquired about him.
According to NBC 6 South Florida, which earlier this week published a lengthy report on Strama’s bond proceedings, Strama’s attorney Sam Rabin later stated in court that he had spoken with Strama four hours before the encounter. Rabin said he told Strama to go to the store to “see if there were videos or cameras,” to which McLaughlin replied, “I am not really buying that.”
Speaking to the Weekly by phone on June 3, Ramsay roundly refuted the claims and said he was completely unaware of the reported suspicions about MCSO until contacted for a comment by NBC.
After that call, Ramsay said, he contacted supervisors at the FBI’s Miami office directly, later arranging an in-person meeting with Ward and FBI supervisors to ask whether there was a question of a breach of trust between the agencies and even filing a complaint against Ward.
“(The Miami office) said, ‘we don’t know what you’re talking about,’” said Ramsay. “If the FBI believed one of my people was leaking information, they would have presented that person before the grand jury, and they would have been arrested as a co-conspirator.”
Ramsay told the Weekly that he has yet to be provided with the identity of an employee within MCSO to launch his own investigation, comparing the recent case to an August 2024 incident in which he fired then-deputy Jennifer Ketcham when a self-instigated internal investigation showed she had allegedly leaked information to suspected drug dealers.
A leak in this case, he added, would have been impossible by definition if his agency was entirely excluded from the FBI’s efforts as described in court filings. An initial press release announcing the arrests last September listed the Homestead and Miami-Dade police departments as assisting the FBI with the investigation, but not MCSO.
“When asked under oath if he had any evidence to support (the leak on April 17), (Ward) is on the record saying ‘I have no evidence to support that suspicion,’” Ramsay said. Ward’s statement is also mentioned in the NBC report.
The sheriff said he believed Ward’s suspicions were a retaliation from months prior, when Ramsay had barred him from working with MCSO due to a history of non-cooperation with agencies in Miami-Dade and Monroe County – a pattern he called “a direct threat to officer safety, public safety and mission outcomes.”
He alleged Ward’s exclusions included other local FBI agents, who Ramsay claimed were also unaware of a 2023 raid on Strama’s home until after it was in progress.
That operation, prosecutors said, was a second instance in which they believed Strama may have been tipped by an MCSO official – but Ramsay said that also would have been difficult, as his agency, and he himself, were not aware of that raid until after it was in progress.
“The FBI never tells someone about a case they’re working on unless they need something from your agency,” he said. “Historically, the FBI is on a need-to-know basis. If you don’t need to know, they don’t tell you.”
Following a May 5 hearing, magistrate judge Lauren Fleischer Louis ruled that Strama would remain on bond with additional conditions, including house arrest with electronic monitoring. Following prosecutors’ concerns that Strama was using FaceTime to communicate – a method not tracked by cellular providers – he was restricted from possessing a phone with an internet connection. Louis’ ruling was upheld later the same month by judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II.
Of the group arrested last September, five had pleaded guilty as of May 14, with two defendants, Louis Charles Arvelo and Allison Annmarie Thomas, sentenced to 15 and 21 months in prison, respectively.
The Weekly called and emailed both the FBI Miami office and Rabin for comment and clarification on court proceedings, leak allegations and MCSO’s reported exclusion in the case, but did not receive a response before press time.
