Attorney General Eric Holder
Speaks at the Operation Guard Shack Press Conference
Good morning. Today I’m pleased to be joined by the
United States Attorney for the District of
This morning,
federal agents in Puerto Rico began arresting 133 individuals – including more than
90 law enforcement officers – on charges that they participated in, or helped
to facilitate, illegal drug transactions. The individuals targeted for arrest
include 61 Puerto Rico Police Department Officers, 16 Municipal Officers, 12
Corrections Officers, one administrative examiner, one Social Security
Administration employee, three Puerto Rico National Guard soldiers, two U.S.
Army Officers, seven former law enforcement officers, and 30 civilians.
The defendants have been charged in 26
indictments and face charges including conspiracy to possess with intent to
distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, attempt to possess with intent
to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, and possession of a firearm
during the commission of a drug trafficking offense.
These indictments are the result of 125
undercover drug transactions that FBI agents conducted across
The Justice Department’s commitment to rooting
out and eradicating corruption in our law enforcement ranks has never been
stronger. We are proud of the outstanding work
that was performed by the FBI, led by its San Juan Division. During the course of this two-year
investigation, the entire San Juan Field Office – which
includes 160 agents – directly participated or assisted in Operation Guard
Shack. Approximately 750 FBI personnel were
flown in to
I want to thank each of these agents, as well
as the other investigators and
law enforcement officials, and the many prosecutors, who contributed to Operation Guard
Shack’s success.
More than three decades ago, I began my career
in the Public Integrity Section. I know, firsthand, that advancing
public corruption investigations and prosecutions is extremely difficult work. In these cases, the stakes are always
high. Public scrutiny is intense. And the utmost professionalism is
essential.
With Operation Guard Shack, the Department
continues to build on its strong record of achievement in bringing public
corruption cases. In fact, today’s arrests and
indictments are the second major public corruption case brought by the
Department this week.
On Monday, we announced the results of a public
corruption investigation in
This Department has one message for
anyone willing to abuse the public trust for personal gain: you will be caught;
you will be stopped; and you will be punished.
The Department of Justice is committed to
holding those who swear to protect and serve their fellow citizens accountable. In our work to root out corruption and
safeguard public resources, we will follow the facts where they lead, and we
will do so without fear or favor.
Without question, today’s arrests will disrupt
drug trafficking operations in
To the people of
Puerto Rico, let me say that: As you continue your
fight against drug trafficking, violent crime, and corruption, we will continue
to stand with you. The vast majority of police officers
in
I’d now like to
turn it over to U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez .
http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-101006.html
PuertoRicoPoliceCorruptionProsecution.pdf
Office of Public
Affairs
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eighty-Nine Law Enforcement
Officers and 44 Others Indicted for Drug Trafficking Crimes in
WASHINGTON – Eighty-nine law enforcement officers and 44 others
in
The defendants face charges ranging from conspiracy to possess
with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, attempt to
possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, and use
of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking offense. The offenses
charged cover a period from in or about
The arrests today are the result of Operation Guard Shack, the
largest police corruption investigation in the history of the FBI. Close to 750
FBI agents were flown in to
"The Justice Department’s commitment to rooting out and
eradicating alleged corruption in our law enforcement ranks has never been
stronger," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "This department
has one message for anyone willing to abuse the public trust for personal gain:
you will be caught, you will be stopped and you will be punished."
The indictments unsealed today are the result of 125 undercover
drug transactions conducted by the FBI in several locations in
The law enforcement officers indicted today are from the
following agencies: 60 defendants from the Puerto Rico Police Department
(PRPD); 16 defendants from various municipal police departments; and 12
officers from the Puerto Rico Corrections Department. The remaining defendants
include: three Puerto Rico National Guard soldiers; two U.S. Army officers;
eight former law enforcement officers ; one administrative examiner in child support matters; one employee from the
Social Security Administration; and 30 civilians.
"These indictments demonstrate the commitment of the
Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in
"Public corruption does not just strike at the heart
of good government. It also jeopardizes the security of our communities and our
nation," said FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, Criminal,
Cyber, Response and Services Branch. "It erodes public confidence
and undermines the strength of our democracy. The FBI is fully committed
to pursuing allegations of public corruption and we will work closely with the
Department of Justice to bring charges when necessary."
The 61 indicted defendants
from the Puerto Rico Police Department are: Omar
Pérez Prado; Lt. Ángel Torres Figueroa; Carlos Fontanez Mercado, aka
"Machazo;" Yacira Vélez Milian;
Heriberto Cruz Vargas aka "Yopi;"
Giovanni Cubertier Morales; Armando Valle Vicenty; Melvin Acevedo
Hernández; Jeff Marrero
Malpica; José Fuentes-Fuentes; Nelson Álvarez Mendoza; Obed
Acevedo Ranero; Joel Hernández Hernández; David González
Pérez; Israel Rullan Santiago; Eusebio Hernández
Nieves; Xavier Álvarez Pérez; Ángel Acevedo Pérez, Ángel Rivera Ortiz, aka "Kento;" Samuel
Acevedo Rivera; Pedro A. Morales Cintrón; Michael Forestier Figueroa; Juan Cruz Ramos, aka
"Tito K9;" Jorge Rosado García; José R. Sánchez Quiñones; Rafael
Figueroa Quiñones; Mayra Jiménez Pacheco; Juan D.
Santiago Rosado; Rolando Nieves Valentin; Brenda
Acosta Andújar; Javier A. Díaz Castro; Arnold E. Benítez Rivera; Rafael Rodríguez Valentin; Ramón Benítez Falcón; Carlos M. Méndez Pérez;
Juan Hernández Vega; Daviel Salinas Acevedo;
Pedro Ayala Rivera; Yamil M. Navedo
Ramírez; Ivan Santiago-Cruz; Daniel E. Ocasio Figueroa; Rafael Bautista Santiago; Isaías Reyes
Arroyo; Sgt. Luis E. Pérez Ortiz; Hector
Hernández Aguilar; Karla M. Colón Bracero; Jim Santana Ramírez; Jayson
Acevedo; José L. Salva Negrón; Milton L. Martínez
Matos; Luis A. González Torres; Miguel Santiago Cordero; Alberto De La Rosa
Reyes; José B. Vargas Torres; Hector López Terrón; Johanna Caraballo López; Silverio
Vera Monroy; Juan Jusino
Ramos; Raúl Vega Sosa; Jonathan Ortiz Muñiz; and Hector Olivero Alicea.Ricardo Vázquez (U.S. Army
Recruiter); Rafael Ureña
Rivera, aka "Indio (former
PRPD);" and William Rivera García (former municipal officer).
The 16 indicted defendants
who are municipal police officers are: Andy Alejandrino Sánchez; Arcadio Hernández-Soto; Raquel
Delgado Marrero; Ángel L. Rivera Claudio; Joel Omar Aldarondo-Montalvo; Neftali Valentin-Fred; José O. Maldonado
García; Luis Joel Avilés Rullan; Mark
Anthony Ortiz; Luis Román Herrera; Gabriel Lozada
Torres; Onel Saavedra González; Rose
M. Serrano Vargas; Wilfredo González Lagares; Francisco J. Riesta
Natal; and Jose Pérez Pérez.
The 12 indicted defendants
who are officers in the Puerto Rico Corrections Department are:Christian
Díaz Maldonado; Olvin García Huertas; José L. Román
Méndez; Ruben Maldonado Torres; Radamés
Cortez Ozoa; Carlos M.
Rosado López; Omar Torres Ruperto; Carlos M. Linares Vega; Bernis
González Miranda; José R. Bermúdez Quiñones; Joel Díaz Nieves; and Bernardo Cruz Trujillo.
The remaining 44 defendants
are: Carlos Figueroa Cruz; Anthony Cruz; Miguel Sánchez Román (U.S. Army, former
San Juan Municipal); Rodolfo E. Torres Negrón; Melquiades Álvarez Mendoza; Juan Carlos González Ortiz; Nelmic De La Cruz Raposo; Jesús LNU; Axel
González Terron; Juan Cruz Tapia (Social Security Office); Edgar Rafael Rivera De Jesús (retired PRPD); Idanis García
Morales (child support examiner); Christian Sotomayor
Filomeno; Omar Cajigas; Abimael Hernández Rivera;
Pedro González-Cruz; Rubin A. Maisonet
De Jesús;Wayne Cedeño
Amador; Josué Ramírez González; Oscar E. Ramos Rodríguez; Antonio L. Román
Reyes; Yancy Toro Espiet;
Alex O. Cordero Cortez, aka
"Omar De La Cruz;" Luis Vélez-Concepción; Billy
Hernández; Edward Quiñones (former
PRPD); Christian A. Núñez-Reverón, aka "Kelvin Nuñez,"
Roberto Molina (retired PRPD); Francisco Manzano
López (former PRPD); Abraham Sánchez (National Guard); Hector Hernández-Aldarondo;
Rafael E. Pérez Rivera; Sgt. Abraham González Sánchez
(National Guard); Wendell Rivera Ruperto, aka
"Arsenio Rivera," (former
PR Department of Corrections); David Maldonado (National
Guard); Juan C. Ramos-Vargas, aka
"Joseph Avilés;" Frederick Santos Ortiz, aka "Roberto Ortega;" Yoana
Sierra Padilla (former PRPD); Julio Gómez-Lloréns; Ricardo Amaro-Santiago; Eliezer
Pagán Medina; and Sgt.
If convicted the defendants are facing sentences ranging from 10
years, up to life in prison.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Courtney Coker and Jacqueline Novas. The case is being investigated by
the FBI San Juan Field Office.
An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not
evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through
due process of law.
10-1124
/ U.S. Attorney General
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-ag-1124.html
Posted on
Police corruption
undermines Puerto Rican drug war
BY FRANCES ROBLES
Every time law enforcement officers in Puerto Rico closed in
on the island's most-wanted fugitive last year, drug trafficker Alex Trujillo
skipped out just in time.
He was captured only after the joint federal and local task
force hunting him down was cut in half to weed out suspected insider
informants, Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo said.
And after investigators at Puerto Rico's Justice Department
saw several drug stings flop last fall, prosecutors discovered a department
employee who was tipping off drug dealers.
Aurea Teresa Cancio
Nieves was caught on camera taking $1,500 from an undercover agent, court
records show.
As Puerto Rico battles one of the highest crime rates in the
United States and burgeoning drug trafficking blamed for about 700 murders a
year, authorities are confronting another harsh reality: corruption.
About 100 police officers are currently under investigation,
and 75 others have been convicted in federal court in the past five years, law
enforcement officials said.
The Puerto Rican attorney general's office has 17 open cases
against members of the police department.
As a hub for cocaine and heroin arriving from Colombia on
the way to mainland U.S. streets, Puerto Rico is so steeped in drug corruption
that even a top prosecutor was accused of accepting a Mercedes Benz from a
known dealer.
The U.S. government estimates that 20 percent of the cocaine
from Colombia passes through the Caribbean.
''We have had officers using police cars to escort drug
dealers, and we have arrested officers selling weapons to undercover agents,''
Toledo said.
``We have many honest, hard-working officers, but some
violate their oath. We have to get rid of them. We are not going to cover up
corruption.''
Between 1993 and 2000, the Puerto Rico Police Department
expelled 1,000 police officers on a variety of criminal charges, Toledo said.
But he stressed that there are about 20,000 officers across
the island of 4 million people -- one of the world's highest police-per-capita
ratios -- making the corrupt officers a comparatively small minority.
In November, two officers assigned to the Arecibo station on the north coast were sentenced to 65
years in prison for protecting cocaine shipments. Another got 40 years.
`LOST HONOR'
In 2001, 32 officers were arrested in the biggest police
corruption case in the island's history, dubbed ''Operation Lost Honor.'' Officers
were accused of using their patrol cars to protect cocaine shipments.
In 2004, 16 officers, including two women, were charged with
conspiring to sell drugs in ''Operation Dark Justice.'' In yet another police
corruption case, ''Blue Shame,'' prosecutors publicly complained that they
suspected judges involved in the case were corrupt.
''This is not something new,'' said Luis S. Fraticelli, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Juan
office. ``This has has been going on in Puerto Rico
as long as I can remember.''
In the 1970s, he said, corruption was so rampant that some
officers were charged with murder.
''We have had undercover agents pose as drug traffickers who
hire corrupt police officers to protect shipments of 30 kilos,'' Fraticelli said in a recent interview.
``To protect that shipment from point A to point B, one trip
is $4,000. If it's five cops, you're talking $20,000.
``If we offered enough, they used their police uniforms and
their patrol cars to protect that load.''
Law enforcement authorities say while it's likely that most
drug dealers here have a police officer on the payroll, the corruption does not
appear to be organized or to reach police brass.
Police Association President José Rodríguez
said ''98 percent'' of police officers were honest, and that the department
leadership publicizes isolated corruption cases in order to cover up its lack
of progress in the fight against crime.
''There are corrupt police in Puerto Rico, but not as much
as other cities in the United States,'' Rodríguez
said.
``These cases are not so frequent, despite our low pay. We
are the lowest paid police officers in the entire country.''
Officers make about $26,400 a year, said Rodríguez,
a police captain in Carolina, a municipality near San Juan.
He added that in Puerto Rico, sergeants supervise 35 to 30
patrol officers, compared to an average of 10 in the United States.
''It's impossible to have effective control,'' he said.
Toledo said the island's police department plans to raise the
minimum hiring age from 18 to 21 and beef up its screening process to include
polygraphs. But he and other authorities agreed that to stop corrupt police,
they have to stop drug trafficking. And to do that, they must largely rely on
federal agencies because local police are prohibited by law from tapping phone
lines, using body recorders or holding suspects without bail.
U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez said her office has lowered the threshold
for the cases federal prosecutors will take.
Her office now regularly files gun possession charges and
drug cases for low quantities of cocaine in the quest to crack down on
street-level drug peddlers.
''I was local assistant D.A. for 10 years. I got to know a
lot of officers; their commitment is extraordinary,'' she said. ``The vast
majority -- vast majority -- are good, decent officers.
This is not an indictment of the police force. It's an
indictment against members who misuse their positions.''
CRIME REDUCTION
Law enforcement agencies have formed joint strike forces,
which are beginning to show reductions in crime in the pilot cities where they
were launched.
''The issue is not the police. The issue is drug
trafficking,'' she said. ``We have a drug trafficking problem and a violent
crime problem. The murder rate is very high.''
In 2006, 736 people were murdered in Puerto Rico, a rate
about three times higher than the U.S. mainland's average. By July 15 of this
year, 365 people had been murdered.
The year started out with an explosion of violence
attributed to a power vacuum left when notorious drug trafficker José
''Coquito'' López Rosario was gunned down last
summer, and the rival dealer who allegedly ordered him killed, Alex Trujillo
was finally captured.
When López Rosario was killed,
authorities began investigating his ties to three local senators, one of whom
brought López along on a series of prison
inspections.
Although he was arrested many times, his cases always fell
apart in court, said Sergio Rubio Paredes, head of
the Puerto Rico Justice Department's organized crime division.
A justice department top prosecutor lost his job when
accused of accepting a Mercedes Benz from López.
Although he was cleared of wrongdoing, his contract was not
renewed. ''Coquito had a lot of connections,'' Toledo said, ``including
judges.''
López had friends in the police
department, too, the superintendent said: His mom provided free catering to
police holiday parties.
''We need to attack the roots of the problem,'' Rubio said. ``In
Puerto Rico, we have proven that hiring more police does not work.''
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