132 Individuals Indicted for Drug Trafficking in the Municipality of San Juan

SAN JUAN, PR On December 8, 2010, a federal grand jury indicted one hundred and thirty-two (132) individuals as a result of an investigation by the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) San Juan Strike Force. The defendants are charged in a six-count indictment with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and with distribution of narcotics and controlled substances. Count two charges twenty (20) defendants of using and carrying firearms during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime. In the year 2007, Benny Medina-García had control of a drug distribution point located at the Vista Hermosa Public Housing Project. Upon Benny Medina-Garcias death in 2007, Victor Colón-Bench, aka "Yogi," "El Loco," "El Father" became a main leader of the drug trafficking organization. Colón-Bench controlled, through co-defendants also acting as leaders, the drug distribution points located at Vista Hermosa. The defendants are charged with participating in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances for significant financial gain and profit. The defendants and their co-conspirators would purchase wholesale quantities of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, Xanax and Percocet in order to distribute the same in street quantity amounts at their drug distribution points. The leaders would maintain a group of co-defendants administrating the activities of the drug distribution points. The leaders of this organization would divide among themselves and their subordinates the proceeds of the drug trafficking sales. The "drug owners" would often receive proceeds from the sale of specific controlled substances. These controlled substances were sold in distinctive Abaggies@, vials or packaging, using specific seals ("sellos") or stickers in order to identify, and maintain control of the drugs distributed at the drug distribution points. They would use apartments in order to package and conceal the heroin, crack, cocaine, marijuana, pills, as well as the equipment and the materials used to process and package the controlled substances (drug paraphernalia). The members of the drug trafficking organization would use force, violence and intimidation in order to gain and maintain control of their drug points and in order to intimidate rival drug trafficking organizations and/or expand their drug trafficking activities. The one hundred and thirty-two (132) co-conspirators had many roles, in order to further the goals of the conspiracy, including: one (1) leader, twenty-five (25) drug point owners/administrators, two (2) enforcers, two (2) suppliers, twenty-three (23) runners, eighty (80) sellers, drug processors, lookouts and facilitators. Since the Strike Force Initiative started in 2006, the US Attorneys Office in the District of Puerto Rico has investigated and prosecuted 1,852 defendants. The case was investigated by ATF, DEA and PRPD.