US authorities on Sunday announced possible sentences that could be imposed on suspected drug traffickers arrested in the Dominican Republic during a search operation.
According to a statement from the United States Department of Justice, both Vladimir Natera Abreu and Joset Rivera Verdejo can spend at least 15 years in prison or face life in prison if convicted.
In the document, Natera Abreu is identified as one of the main leaders of the Puerto Rican Cantera Revolutionary Forces (FARC), based in Puerto Rico.
FARC, according to the US Department of Justice, has operated since at least 2006 and has had a presence in several communities in the San Juan neighborhood of San Juan, such as Barrio Obrero, El Guano, Playita, Calle William, Calle Once, Cantera and Villa Kennedy, Las Casas, El Mirador and Las Margaritas Public Housing Projects.
He also indicated that the FARC’s goal was to maintain control of all drug trafficking activities in the area of Puerto Rico “through the use of force, threats, violence and intimidation.”
Both defendants were previously charged with seven counts for conspiracy to possess, with intent to distribute narcotics, to assist and incite the possession and distribution of heroin, crack, cocaine and marijuana, as well as the possession of a firearm, in the promotion of drug trafficking.
Natera Abreu, who was born in the Dominican Republic according to the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was considered in the Dominican Republic as the largest drug dealer from Puerto Rico.
promptness
The Public Ministry and the National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) arrested the accused in a raid made in an apartment in Torre Gil Rome XX, in the Evaristo Morales sector.
The extraditable people were in the mentioned tower when the authorities went to that place at mid-morning this Sunday. The operation lasted about an hour.