PHYSICIAN WHO REMOVED DRUG CONSPIRATOR'S FINGERPRINTS TO CONCEAL IDENTITY SENTENCED TO PRISON

Martin C. Carlson, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced that Jose L. Covarrubias, age 50, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona, was sentenced today by United States District Court Chief Judge Yvette Kane to an 18-month term of imprisonment for harboring a fugitive.

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Carlson, in 2007, Covarrubias was charged in a Second Superseding Indictment as a result of a continuing investigation into the marijuana trafficking activities of Rodney Hutchinson, also known as “Jamaican Mike,” of Harrisburg and others. In May 2006, the grand jury in Harrisburg returned a multi-count indictment against Hutchinson and 33 other defendants charging them with conspiring to distribute in excess of 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and conspiracy to launder money.

The indictment provides that the Hutchinson organization recruited numerous couriers from the Harrisburg area. These couriers would transport large sums of U.S. currency to Tucson, Arizona, concealed in vehicles or concealed on their persons if they flew commercial airlines. There the money would be provided to indicted co-conspirator Abraham Perez who was the source of the marijuana that was obtained from other sources in Mexico. Couriers would then transport the marijuana back to the Harrisburg area concealed in vehicles where it would be distributed to others for sale and the remaining amount taken to New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere for distribution. According to Carlson, investigators seized well over 1,000 pounds of marijuana and over $1 million dollars in US Currency during the investigation.

The investigation also disclosed that Covarrubias performed similar appearance-altering surgery on individuals suspected of being involved in drug trafficking and other crimes.
In November 2007, Covarrubias pleaded guilty to harboring a fugitive.

Carlson praised the efforts of the various law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation: “Once again those who engage in concerted criminal conduct, like drug trafficking, employ extraordinary means to avoid arrest and prosecution, even to the point of surgically removing co-conspirator’s fingerprints. And, once again, the professional men and women of the various local, state and federal agencies dedicated to stopping this activity have proven that they are more than a match for them.”

The case has been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Harrisburg and Tucson resident offices, the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigation Division, Office of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Pennsylvania State Police, the New Jersey State Police, the Dauphin County Drug Task Force, the Harrisburg Police Department, the Dauphin County Criminal Investigation Division, and the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office.

The investigation and prosecution of these matters has been assigned to Assistant United States Attorney William A. Behe of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

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