ind_drug_trafficking_cloro_7-20-22-cr-328-fab_.pdfSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On July 20, 2022, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment charging four men and women with conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, declared W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Lawyer for the District of Puerto Rico. Collaborating businesses in the Caribbean Corridor Strike Drive and the Puerto Rico Law enforcement Bureau (PRPB) are in demand of the investigation of the circumstance, with the collaboration from: the Puerto Rico Office of Justice, the Puerto Rico Department of General public Safety, the Puerto Rico Section of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, Customs and Border Safety (CBP), the San Juan Municipal Police, and the Guaynabo Municipal Police.
According to the evidence recovered in the investigation, and as alleged in the indictment, as section of the manners and suggests of the conspiracy, the members of the conspiracy packaged the cocaine inside cardboard bins labeled as cleaning merchandise.
The defendants named in the indictment are:
Francisco Rivera-Rivera
Santiago Ramírez
Teddy Vergara-López
Jonathan Castro-Rivera
Portion of the contraband seized in this scenario was just lately recovered from a warehouse at a correctional facility. At this time, the evidence does not indicate the involvement of any correctional officer or correctional worker in the commission of this criminal offense. Alternatively, it appears that the cocaine-laden bins have been not taken off from the cargo as prepared, and were being mistakenly taken to the Ponce warehouse with the cleansing products. The believed benefit of the somewhere around 228 kilograms of cocaine seized in this investigation is $4,104,000.
“This procedure displays the great collaboration in between our point out and federal legislation enforcement associates. We will keep on following qualified prospects in this investigation in purchase to establish all of all those liable,” explained W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.
“The Caribbean Corridor Strike Drive is composed of our federal, state and community counterparts in an effort to stop the movement of contraband in the Caribbean,” stated Iván J. Arvelo, Unique Agent in Charge for HSI San Juan. “Those included in drug trafficking need to know that the Caribbean is no longer an possibility to transship narcotics into the United States, we are performing together, we are interdicting, and we are arresting.”
“The functions connected to the discovery of 50 kilos of cocaine inside a warehouse at the Ponce Correctional Facility, have been coordinated with our Federal Law Enforcement associates, the Office of Correction and Rehabilitation, and the Section of Community Basic safety. Our merged mission in the investigation of this criminal offense and violation of the law is to come across and prosecute all folks included in this felony firm,” said the Secretary of the Section of Community Basic safety, Alexis Torres.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer (AUSA) and Chief of the Transnational Arranged Criminal offense Area Max Pérez-Bouret, Deputy Main of the Transnational Arranged Criminal offense Segment, AUSA Vanessa Bonhomme, and AUSA Luis A. Valentin are in charge of the prosecution of the scenario. If convicted, the defendants confront a bare minimum sentence of 10 decades, and up to life in prison.
The Caribbean Corridor Strike Power is element of an Organized Criminal offense Drug Enforcement Process Force’s (OCDETF) Strike Power Initiative, which delivers for the institution of permanent multi-company task drive teams that work aspect-by-aspect in the exact location. This co-situated product permits agents from various businesses to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional functions to disrupt and dismantle the most important drug traffickers, income launderers, gangs, and transnational legal organizations. Taking part organizations of the Caribbean Corridor Strike Drive involve the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI), Coastline Guard Investigative Support (CGIS), the U.S. Marshals Provider, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Attorney’s Workplace.
An indictment is just an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until finally demonstrated guilty further than a sensible question in a court of law.
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