Thomas Geers
Real Name: Thomas Robert Geers
Aliases: No Known Aliases
Wanted For: Drug Trafficking, Escape
Missing Since: May 23, 1985
Case[]
Details: During the 1980s, Thomas Geers and his partner Joseph Valverde III trafficked cocaine, Quaaludes, and marijuana. They often flew the drugs into Florida on Valverde's plane, using a hidden airstrip on a farm that Valverde owned. As a result, the two lived a lavish lifestyle. However, on December 28, 1984, they were arrested as they allegedly transferred 3,000 pounds of marijuana worth $1.7 million from Valverde's plane to Geers' motor home. On May 23, 1985, they walked out of a Florida jail and vanished. In 1986, Valverde was arrested in Arkansas; he pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was sentenced to fifty-seven years in prison. Geers, however, has not been seen since the escape.
Extra Notes:
- The case was featured in a FBI alert in the September 19, 1990 episode, along with Mike Cline, Raymond Scoville, and Michael Lassen.
- It was excluded from the FilmRise release of the series.
Results: Captured. In November 1991, Geers was arrested at a phone booth in Juneau, Alaska. In 1994, he was convicted of trafficking charges and sentenced to twenty-five years in federal prison. After serving twenty-two years in federal prison, he was transferred to Florida to complete a twenty-year sentence there. In December 2017, he was released from prison.
Valverde was released in 2005.
Links:
- Accused drug smuggler escapes from small-town jail - May 24, 1985
- Smuggling Suspects Escape Jail - May 24, 1985
- Drug Suspect's Trial To Go On Without Him - August 4, 1987
- Pinellas drug smuggler pleads guilty - August 6, 1987
- Guilty Plea Stops Pair's Drug Trial - August 6, 1987
- Drug fugitive arrested in Alaska - November 15, 1991
- Fugitive is on trial years after escape - July 17, 1994
- The Former Miami Weed Transporter Who's Helping Drug War Inmates Get Out of Prison - October 19, 2015
- Joseph Valverde on Mugshots.com
- Thomas Geers on Florida Inmate Search