John Petri

Miami-Dade Police Department (Retired)

A native of Ohio, John Petri has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Florida State University and a Masters of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Florida International University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. During his graduate studies program John was a two term National President of Alpha Phi Sigma, the National Criminal Justice Honor Society. He is also retired from the United States Army as a Lieutenant Colonel with 28 years of service.

John attended several police sponsored training schools on subjects that included Crime Scene Investigation, Interview & Interrogation Techniques, Burglary Investigation, RICO (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations), Financial Crime Investigation and others. He also became a state certified law enforcement instructor teaching career criminal and burglary investigations to law enforcement officers.

John spent 30 years with the Miami-Dade Police Department. He began his law enforcement career in 1975 and served for 5 years in Road Patrol with the next 5 years as a Detective in the General Investigations Unit (GIU) in the Northeast District Station. He conducted numerous investigations of crimes related to Burglary, Cargo Theft, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Assault and other crimes.

In 1985 John was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and spent the next 20 years supervising investigators in various units that handled cases involving Organized Crime, Money Laundering, Murder Conspiracy, Racketeering, Burglary, Extortion, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, and Career Offenders.

In 2002 John partnered with Gary Venema (FDLE) in a task force investigation named "Operation Stonecold". Together they worked with Investigators from the Florida Department of Health and the Office of Statewide Prosecution on cases involving criminal groups operating in the South Florida area who were involved in the Diversion, Theft and Counterfeiting of Pharmaceutical drugs. This case represented the largest investigation of this nature ever investigated by the Miami-Dade Police Department and had national implications throughout the pharmaceutical industry.

Gary Venema

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (Retired)

A native of Florida, Gary Venema has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from Florida Atlantic University. He has attended numerous police sponsored training schools on subjects related to Arson, Homicide, Fraud and Investigative Techniques. In addition, Gary received training on Advanced Homicide Investigation at the FBI Academy and Drug Investigation training from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Gary served 24 years with the Hialeah Police Department. During that time period he spent over 8 years investigating Homicide, Sexual Battery and other major crimes. His experience includes being assigned the lead or co-lead detective on 46 Homicide investigations. He also spent 2 years investigating Fraud, Auto Theft, and Arson crimes.

After being promoted to Sergeant, Gary spent 5 years as supervisor of long-term Organized Crime and Major Drug Investigations and 6 years as a Road Patrol Supervisor. Gary retired from the Hialeah Police Department in 1997.

In December of 1997, Gary became a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and began working cold case Homicides and Drug investigations. Beginning in 2002, Gary was the lead investigator in “Operation Stonecold”. Participants in this task force included the Florida Department of Health, the Miami-Dade Police Department, and the Office of Statewide Prosecutor along with FDLE.

Operation Stonecold was a racketeering investigation centered around numerous racketeering cells involved in the international and interstate trafficking of illicitly obtained and counterfeited bio-pharmaceutical products and the laundering of the illicitly obtained proceeds. This highly successful investigation represents the largest healthcare related fraud ever investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Gary has conducted training classes and presentations on the investigation and prosecution of biopharmaceutical counterfeiting and diversion to various groups including Health Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, NADDI (National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators) and private healthcare groups. He has also worked closely with major pharmaceutical manufacturers corporate security personnel and the NBSC (National Biopharmaceutical Security Council in identifying global security issues impacting the industry.