Spanish
San Juan.- The federal prosecutor's office in Puerto Rico announced this Friday that a federal grand jury has indicted 14 members of the criminal organization 'La V' for trafficking hundreds of kilos of cocaine to the United States and the Dominican Republic.
According to a statement from the head of the Prosecutor's Office, W. Stephen Muldrow, the criminal group from Camuy (north), headed by Emilio López Vargas, conspired from 2021 to 2025 to possess and distribute large quantities of drugs, firearms, and commit money laundering.
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According to the indictment, López Vargas was responsible for importing and distributing hundreds of cocaine in coordination with other people in the Dominican Republic. To do this, the organization used boats with hiding places where they stored the cocaine shipments and brought them from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. Upon those kilos of cocaine arriving in Puerto Rico, drug traffickers began distributing it throughout the island. The group also used employees of the U.S. Postal Service and another worker from a logistics company, identified as Axel Manuel Cardec Lugo, to protect cocaine shipments to the North American country, where other members of the criminal organization would collect them. In total, the authorities managed to seize 203 kilos of cocaine from packages that Cardec Lugo sent to the United States. In turn, other members of the criminal organization in the United States, took the kilos of cocaine, divided it and adulterated it with other drugs to resell it in smaller packages. In Puerto Rico, meanwhile, other members of the criminal group hid the cocaine and fentanyl in some residences, where they packaged the drugs. Also, some members of La V trafficked firearms from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic on sailboats to later sell them. Federal authorities explained that López Vargas and another defendant, identified as John López Peralta, were the main people responsible for coordinating and importing the cocaine into the United States through their contacts in the Dominican Republic. López Vargas also trafficked firearms to the neighboring country. Similarly, López Vargas and four other members of the criminal group, identified as Axel Manuel Cardec Lugo, Richard Romero Rodríguez, Jeiric Gilberto Ramos Rodríguez, and Whilhelm López Afanador, sent packages with kilos of cocaine through the mail to other members of La V to the U.S. Meanwhile, others involved were keeping the profits from the sale of cocaine in some homes and taking trips from the United States with that money to Puerto Rico. Of the 14 defendants, however, two -Víctor Hernández and Yamil González Vargas- have not been arrested. According to authorities, 9 of the 14 individuals involved have been charged with conspiring to possess firearms and use them in some cases of drug trafficking. If these defendants are found guilty, they could face a minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison. Finally, those involved with the possession of machine guns could serve a sentence of no less than 30 years up to life imprisonment, along with a consecutive sentence for drug charges.
