His crime ring sold ‘square groupers’ found in the Keys. Now he’s headed to prison

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced the former owner of a professional offshore powerboat racing team to 10 years in prison for leading a large cocaine smuggling and distribution operation in the Florida Keys.

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Federal prosecutors say much of the cocaine John Robert Strama, Jr. sold between 2020 and 2023 was actually loads from other smugglers’ shipments that were lost in transit passing the Key.

Strama, 44, used his knowledge of the island chain’s waterways and boating to recover the contraband and distribute it to co-conspirators and other buyers throughout the archipelago, investigators said.

“Fishing for ‘square groupers’ in the waters off the Florida Keys is not a harmless pastime; it is drug trafficking, and it carries serious consequences,” Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement.

“Square grouper” is a long-used term for bricks of coke or bales of marijuana found floating in the ocean off the Keys.

Strama, from the Middle Keys city of Marathon, was arrested along with 26 other people in September 2024, following an FBI investigation that resulted in a sweeping grand jury indictment the month before. Strama, who owned the JS-Racing S-7 powerboat team at the time, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine.

Had he gone to trial and been found guilty by a jury, Strama was facing a life prison sentence.

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Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II also sentenced two other members of the ring, Pedro Luis Lugo, Jr. and Elvis Lazaro Ruiz, to prison this week. Lugo, 38, was sentenced to seven years for conspiracy to distribute five kilos or more of cocaine, and Lazaro Ruiz, 33, was sentenced to five years for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to court documents.

Most of the other co-defendants have already taken pleas, including Rusty John Stiglitz, 41, who was a distribution supervisor at the time of the crimes for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, the Keys’ fresh water utility.

Stiglitz, who earned a $112,507 annual salary as a public servant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine in December 2025, and was sentenced to three year and three months in federal prison, plus two years of supervised release.

Prosecutors say another Aqueduct employee was also part of the ring, 45-year-old Daniel Fernando Ramirez. Fernando Ramirez, who was a distribution service operator for the utility, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in April, and is scheduled to be sentenced in September, according to court records.

“These defendants recovered kilogram quantities of cocaine from the sea and distributed them throughout the Florida Keys for years,”Quiñones said. “Their sentences send a clear message: whether drugs arrive by land, air, or sea, we will work with our law enforcement partners to find the traffickers, dismantle their networks, and bring them to justice.”

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