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News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2001
OPERATION
CROSSROADS II and OPERATION CARIBE I
DEA Caribbean Division Dismantles Two International Drug Trafficking and
Money Laundering Organizations
SAN JUAN, Puerto
Rico – Guillermo Gil, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico
and Rogelio Guevara, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), Caribbean Field Division, today announced the arrests of 17 individuals
as a result of two parallel investigations targeting several international
drug trafficking and money laundering organizations based in Puerto Rico.
These organizations engaged in the illicit trafficking of multi-hundred
quantities of cocaine and multi-kilogram quantities of heroin, and the
laundering of millions of U.S. dollars, obtained from their drug trafficking
activities. Their drug trafficking and money laundering activities extended
to Venezuela, Dominican Republic, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin
Islands, and New York.
The investigations
which resulted in today’s arrests are: Operation Crossroads II, initiated
on December 2000 by the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Fajardo,
Puerto Rico, and Operation Caribe I, initiated on April of 2001 by the
DEA San Juan, Puerto Rico Field Office. Both investigations were closely
coordinated with the DEA Special Operations Division (SOD) in Washington,
D.C. and with DEA offices in New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; Bogota,
Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela. In addition, these investigations were
further supported by a Regional Enforcement Team (RET) which deployed
to Puerto Rico.
According to DEA
Administrator Asa Hutchinson, “The success of today’s efforts
represent cooperative law enforcement at its best. By attacking profit
and money laundering activities, authorities were able to dismantle drug
trafficking organizations responsible for the distribution of hundreds
of kilograms of cocaine and large quantities of heroin from the Caribbean
to New York.”
DEA Administrator
Hutchinson added, “Today’s arrests reflect over a year’s
worth of detailed investigation by DEA offices in the Caribbean, Florida,
New York, and DEA Headquarters, and the tireless efforts of several other
U.S. agencies, as well the Police, Treasury, and the Special Investigations
Bureau from Puerto Rico. It is rewarding to see what can be accomplished
when agencies pursue a common goal.”
As a result of Operation
Caribe I, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico
obtained Federal Grand Jury indictments on November 28, 2001 charging
12 individuals with violations to Title 21, U.S. Code, Sections: 846 and
841(a)(1) (conspiracy to possess and possession of narcotics with the
intent to distribute); Sections: 960 and 952 (importation or exportation
of controlled substances), and Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1956(h) (conspiracy
to launder drug trafficking proceeds), Section 1956(a)(2)(A) (laundering
of drug proceeds), and Section 2 (aiding and abetting). One individual
was charged by Criminal Complaint of violation to Title 21 U.S. Code,
Section 846. As a result of Operation Crossroads II, the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the District of Puerto Rico obtained Federal Grand Jury Indictment
on December 5, 2001 charging 14 individuals with violations to Title 21
U.S. Code, Section 846 (conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute
a controlled substance).
Other participating
agencies during Operation Crossroads II and Operation Caribe I include:
U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service;
U.S. Customs Service (USCS); U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative
Service; U.S. Navy’s Naval Criminal Investigative Service; U.S. Department
of Health and Human Service’s Food and Drug Administration; U.S.
Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; U.S.
Treasury Department’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Puerto Rico
Police Department; Puerto Rico Justice Department’s Special Investigations
Bureau (NIE); Puerto Rico Treasury Department (Hacienda) and the Puerto
Rico National Guard Counter Drug Support Task Force.
The SOD is a specialized
DEA Division, were attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice’s
Criminal Division and agents and analysts from the DEA, FBI, USCS, and
the IRS provide analytical, investigative and legal support to DEA offices
worldwide on very complex and highly technical investigations. The RET
is a rapid deployable group of specially trained and equipped DEA Special
Agents whom provide critical investigative and tactical support to DEA
offices throughout the United States.
The arrested individuals
are: Rafael PERALTA, Carlos PARRA, Gilberto CRUZ, Xavier PEREZ, Julio
Cesar QUINONES, Daphne JORDAN, Ehrick Frankie DELGADO-Hernandez, Luis
SIMMONS-Narvaez, Jose MARTINO-Rivera, Nilson BONILLA, Angel REYES-Orozco,
Rolando SANTIAGO-Villafane, Ismael MADE, Juanita CASTRO-Ortiz, Julio MARQUEZ-Alejandro,
Luis RIVERA-Villegas, Bartolo MARTE-Jumenez. The arrest operation continues
in order to locate the remaining individuals. Those not arrested today
will subsequently be declared fugitives and will be sought by the U.S.
Marshals Service’s Puerto Rico Fugitive Task Force.
The indictment is
an accusation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty
at trial. If convicted the defendants face the criminal forfeiture of
assets valued in millions of dollars derived from illegal drug trafficking
and money laundering activities pursuant to Title 21 U.S. Code, Section
853 and Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 982.
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Special Agent Waldo P. Santiago
Public Information Officer
DEA San Juan, PR
800-718-0781 |