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Ex-Coral Springs Firefighter Sentenced For Attempted Drug Trafficking

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – A former Coral Springs firefighter, who may have had ties to the grisly murders portrayed in the movie "Pain & Gain", was sentenced to more than a dozen years in prison on Tuesday on unrelated charges.

The family of Santiago Gonzalez, 49, was visibly upset when a federal judge in Ft. Lauderdale gave him 15 years in prison on attempted drug trafficking and weapons charges.

"The family is not doing well, this is an emotional time for them," said Santiago's attorney Robert Berube after the proceeding. "Theyare not doing well."

Gonzalez was arrested in January 2013 in an undercover sting operation. Federal prosecutors said he was an armed escort for a person he thought was a drug dealer delivering nearly 70 pounds of cocaine in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

According to federal documents, an informant said Gonzalez bragged that he was involved in the violent Miami Lakes "Sun Gym Gang" depicted in movie "Pain & Gain" which stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The gang was responsible for the grizzly murders of wealthy Hungarian couple Frank Gringa and Kristina Furton in 1995. The couple's bodies were found dismembered and stuffed into oil drums in a canal in the Everglades.  The couple's severed heads, which had their teeth pulled out to make identification difficult, were found off I-75 in Broward County.

Two of the gang, Daniel Lugo and Adrian Doorbal, were convicted of the murders and remain on death row. A third man was convicted and imprisoned for his role.

Both Gonzalez and Berube have both denied that he had any involvement with the gang.

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