News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2001
DEA/HIDTA
PONCE RESIDENT OFFICE ARRESTS 13 MEMBERS OF A MAYAGUEZ BASED COCAINE AND
HEROIN DISTRIBUTION ORGANIZATION
SAN JUAN, Puerto
Rico - Rogelio Guevara, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), Caribbean Field Division, announced today the arrest
of 13 individuals of a cocaine and heroin distribution organization based
in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The arrests were the result of a complex criminal
conspiracy investigation initiated in June of 1999 by the DEA's High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Ponce, PR Resident Office and FBI Aguadilla
Resident Office which lead to Federal Grand Jury indictments charging
the members of the organization with multiple violations to the Federal
Controlled Substances Act. This drug trafficking organization was lead
by Wilfredo TORRES-Figueroa, alias Ado, of Mayaguez, PR. The DEA/HIDTA
Ponce Resident Office investigation revealed that the TORRES-Figueroa
organization was the source of supply for multiple drug points throughout
the Municipality of Mayaguez and the western area of Puerto Rico.
During the early
morning hours of Tuesday, August 28, 2001, a task force of over 100 Federal
and Commonwealth law enforcement agents simultaneously executed the 13
arrests warrants in the Municipalities of San German, Mayaguez and Añasco,
PR. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the U.S. Immigration
& Naturalization Service (INS), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS),
the Puerto Rico Police Department, the Puerto Rico Special Investigations
Bureau (NIE) and the Puerto Rico Treasury Department (Hacienda)
participated in the operation. The Puerto Rico National Guard Counterdrug
Support Task Force provided logistical support to the operation.
The arrested individuals
were: Wilfredo TORRES-Figueroa, Raul FERRER-Ramos, Raul FERRER-Aguilar,
Rafael SOTO-Roman, Irving TORRES-Figueroa, Carlos Omar COLON-Acevedo,
Carlos MERCADO-Jimenez, Rufino SOTO-Roman, William CORTES-Morel, Jose
MEDINA-Padilla, Walter ROMAN-Lugo, Brenda RIVERA-Agostini, and Yanira
FERRER-Aguilar.
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