Sixteen Current and Former Puerto Rico Police Officers Indicted for Allegedly Running Criminal Organization out of Police Department

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Sixteen current and former Puerto Rico police officers have been indicted for their alleged participation in a criminal organization, run out of the police department, that used their affiliation with law enforcement to make money through robbery, extortion, manipulating court records and selling illegal narcotics.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez of the District of Puerto Rico and Special Agent in Charge Carlos Cases of the FBI’s San Juan Division made the announcement.

“ The criminal action today dismantles an entire network of officers who, we allege, used their badges and their guns not to uphold the law, but to break it,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General O’Neil.   “The indictment portrays a classic criminal shakedown, an organized crime spree of which the most experienced mafia family would have been proud.   But the people wielding the guns and stealing the drugs here weren’t mob goodfellas or mafia soldiers – these were police officers violating their oaths to enforce the law, making a mockery of the police’s sacred responsibility to protect the public. ”
“This is a troubling day for law enforcement in Puerto Rico. Officers who use their badges as an excuse to commit egregious acts of violence and drug trafficking are an affront to the rule of law,” said US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez.  “According to these allegations, the law enforcement officers charged today sold their badges by taking payoffs from drug dealers that they should have been arresting, extorting money, planting evidence and stealing from them, to mention a few of their crimes.  They not only betrayed the citizens they were sworn to protect, they also betrayed the thousands of honest, hard-working law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to keep us safe.  We will continue to work with our local law enforcement partners to end this cycle of corruption and renew Puerto Rico’s trust in its police officers.”

“Today is a sad day for Puerto Rico, where a group of police officers allegedly disgraced their uniform and are a shame to the Police of Puerto Rico,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Cases.   “They not only let their colleagues and family down, they let the citizens of Puerto Rico down.”

The indictment, returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico, includes 36 charges against the following individuals: Osvaldo Vazquez-Ruiz, 38; Orlando Sierra-Pereira, 37; Danny Nieves-Rivera, 34; Roberto Ortiz-Cintron, 34; Yovanny Crespo-Candelaria, 33; Jose Sanchez-Santiago, 31; Miguel Perez-Rivera, 34; Nadab Arroyo-Rosa, 33; Jose Flores-Villalongo, 52; Luis Suarez-Sanchez, 36; Eduardo Montañez-Perez, 29; Carlos Laureano-Cruz, 40; Carlos Candelario-Santiago, 46; Ruben Casiano-Pietri, 36; Ricardo Rivera-Rodriguez, 39; and Christian Valles-Collazo, 28.   At the time of the crimes charged, Flores-Villalongo and Candelario-Santiago were sergeants with the Police of Puerto Rico (POPR); the others were police officers.

The first 13 defendants listed are charged with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.   Other charges against certain defendants include extortion and attempted extortion under color of official right, conspiracy to commit robbery and attempted robbery, illegal use and sale of firearms, narcotics trafficking, civil rights violations, theft of government property, and false statements to federal agents.

According to the indictment, the officers charged with RICO conspiracy were members of a criminal organization who sought to enrich themselves through a pattern of illegal conduct.   The officers worked together to conduct traffic stops and enter homes or buildings used by persons suspected of being engaged in criminal activity to steal money, property and narcotics.    The officers planted evidence to make false arrests, then extorted money in exchange for their victims’ release from custody.   In exchange for bribe payments, the defendants gave false testimony, manipulated court records and failed to appear in court when required so that cases would be dismissed.   The officers also sold and distributed wholesale quantities of narcotics.

For example, in April 2012, defendants Vazquez-Ruiz and Sierra-Pereira allegedly conducted a traffic stop in their capacity as police officers and stole approximately $22,000 they believed to be illegal drug proceeds.   Vazquez-Ruiz later attempted to extort approximately $8,000 from an individual they believed to be a drug dealer’s accomplice in exchange for promising to release an alleged prisoner.

In another example, the indictment alleges that in November 2012, defendants Sierra-Pereira, Nieves-Rivera, Ortiz-Cintron and Valles-Collazo illegally entered an apartment and stole approximately $30,000, which they believed were illegal lottery proceeds.

The indictment charges that the defendants frequently shared the proceeds they illegally obtained and that they used their power, authority and official positions as police officers to promote and protect their illegal activity.   Among other things, the indictment charges that they used POPR firearms, badges, patrol cars, tools, uniforms and other equipment to commit the crimes and concealed their illegal activity with fraudulently obtained court documents and falsified POPR paperwork to make it appear that they were engaged in legitimate police work.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations.   The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s San Juan Division.   The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Brian K. Kidd, Emily Rae Woods and Menaka Kalaskar of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mariana Bauza of the District of Puerto Rico.

Citizens of Puerto Rico with allegations of law enforcement corruption are encouraged to contact the FBI’s San Juan Division at (787) 754-6000.

On This Day In Crime History: The FBI Finally Got John Gotti

Below is a piece from the FBI web site on how they finally made the charges stick to the "Teflon Don," John Gotti:

He was slippery, yes, but even the “Teflon Don” couldn’t escape justice forever.

Despite the future nickname, John Gotti—a violent, ruthless mobster who’d grown up on the streets of New York—had been in and out of prison several times in his early career. In 1968, for example, we arrested him for his role in a plot to steal thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. Gotti was sent to prison, but was released in 1972.

And quickly made more trouble. Within two years, we’d arrested him again for murder. Same story: he went to prison and was out in a few years. Soon after, he became a “made man” for the Gambino family, one of the five most powerful syndicates in the Big Apple. Gambling, loansharking, and narcotics trafficking were his stocks in trade.

The heat was on. By the early 80s, using Title III wiretaps, mob informants, and undercover agents, we were beginning to get clear insights into the Gambino family’s hierarchy and activities (and into the other families as well) and were building strong cases against them as criminal enterprises. A break against Gotti came in late 1985, when mob violence spilled out on to the streets of Manhattan.

The scene of the crime? Sparks’ Steak House, a popular hangout for major criminals. On the evening of December 16, 1985, 70-year-old-mafioso Paul Castellano—the apparent successor of recently deceased Gambino boss Aniello Dellacroce—was gunned down along with his number two in command, Thomas Bilotti, in front of the restaurant. Gotti, who’d been watching from a car at a safe distance, had one of his men drive him by the scene to make sure his deadly orders had been carried out.

Top hood. Having eliminated the competition, Gotti took over as head of the Gambino family. With his expensive suits, lavish parties, and illegal dealings, he quickly became something of a media celebrity, and the press dubbed him “The Dapper Don.” Following a string of highly-publicized acquittals—helped in large part by witness intimidation and jury tampering—Gotti also earned the “Teflon Don” nickname.

Our New York agents and their colleagues in the New York Police Department, though, refused to give up. With extensive court-authorized electronic surveillance, diligent detective work, and the eventual cooperation of Gotti’s henchman—“Sammy the Bull” Gravano—the Bureau and the NYPD built a strong case against him.

The end was near. In December 1990, our agents and NYPD detectives arrested Gotti, and he was charged with multiple counts of racketeering, extortion, jury tampering, and other crimes. This time, the judge ordered that the jurors remain anonymous, identified only by number, so no one could pressure them. And the case was airtight.

The combination worked. On April 2, 1992, 15 years ago Monday, Gotti was convicted on 13 counts, including for ordering the murders of Castellano and Bilotti. The head of our New York office famously remarked, “The don is covered with Velcro, and every charge stuck.”

Indeed. Gotti had evaded the law for the last time. He died in prison in June 2002. 

Terrorism-Crime Nexus A Growing Concern, Defense Department Official Says

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2012 - The convergence of crime, terrorism and insurgency and its threat to U.S. national security is a growing concern for the Defense Department, whose role in the fight began in the 1980s and continues to evolve, a senior defense official said today.

William F. Wechsler, deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, spoke during an irregular warfare summit sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.

"The Department of Defense's role in this effort goes back ... to the 1980s," Wechsler said, when America was flooded with vast amounts of cocaine coming from Colombia and across the Caribbean into Florida.

"This was a direct invasion of our sovereignty, of ... our borders. And before the Department of Defense was asked to [intervene], this issue was only getting worse," he added.

At the time, 75 percent of all the cocaine that came into the country came directly into Florida in small boats and planes and law enforcement could do little to prevent it, Wechsler said.

Today less than 1 percent of the nation's illegal drugs are arriving through Florida, he said.

Part of the solution involved establishing the Interagency Task Force South, part of U.S. Southern Command, based at Naval Air Station Key West in Florida to conduct counter-drug trafficking operations and to link intelligence and operations.

"As part of that process we learned a great deal that has helped us in the current war in Afghanistan, for instance," Wechsler said.

Since that time, he added, the problems of transnational organized crime have changed radically, driven by globalization. They operate on a worldwide scale with diversified commodities for trafficking and have changed from top-down hierarchies to network-based organizations.

"There are also a lot of new methods for doing business," Wechsler said. "Information technology, penetration of illicit markets, infiltrating companies and capturing governments have really put [transnational crime] in a different zone than it was 15 years ago."

In 2011, President Barack Obama issued his strategy to combat transnational organized crime. "Most importantly for the Department of Defense it declares that transnational organized crime is a national security threat," Wechsler added.

The strategy, he said, also noted the complex and in some places opaque relationships developed among criminal organizations, terrorist groups and insurgent movements.

This means that more terrorist organizations are using criminal mechanisms to support themselves, Wechsler said, and more criminal organizations are using the tactics of terrorist organizations.

"The guys in Mexico didn't come up by themselves with the idea of beheading someone, videotaping it and posting it on the Internet," Wechsler said. "They watched terrorist organizations do this and thought, 'What a great idea. We can apply this for our own purposes.'"

In the globalized world, he said, such ideas move rapidly from one group to another, even if there's no contact between them.

Connections can now be seen between previously unrelated criminal and terrorist organizations. An example of this, Wechsler said, is last year's alleged attempt by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force to use members of Los Zetas, Mexico's violent criminal syndicate, to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

Wechsler said James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, recently testified that "terrorists and insurgents will increasingly turn to crime and criminal networks for funding and logistics, in part because of U.S. and western success in attacking other sources of their funding. Criminal connections and activities of Hezbollah and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb illustrate this trend."

With the exception of Afghanistan, Wechsler said, DOD's role in fighting this escalating threat is nearly always in support of law enforcement or partner countries.

In Afghanistan, he added, where there is a blending of crime, terrorism and insurgency on the battlefield, "we've really come a great long way on this."

Wechsler said such work has required military operations, special operations, and integration with law enforcement, along with host country initiatives, and with the State and Justice departments.

"If one assumes we're going to confront these kinds of adversaries, or other countries that we're going to support are going to confront these adversaries, it's a model for our military planning in the years to come," he said.

Another Defense Department success, he said, is its support of Colombia's decade-long fight against the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, called the FARC.

"Colombia was in really dire straits [in the 1990s]," Wechsler said. "The war isn't over but the bottom line is that the FARC is a shadow of what it was and Colombia has taken back tremendous amounts of territory."

That country, he added, "has gone from being an exporter of insecurity throughout the region to being an exporter of security and a great partner for many of its neighbors on the lessons it's learned and in capacity building around the world."

Today the Defense Department is learning from these successes, "whether we support law enforcement, whether we support a host nation or whether we are directly involved in the fight ourselves," Wechsler said.

The next steps, he added, are to build lessons learned into planning and training processes, and to "make sure we have the right mechanisms to work collaboratively with everyone in the interagency because in many if not most of these efforts, the Department of Defense isn't in the lead, we're in support."