Crime in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico
Crime rates (2008)
Crime type	Rate*
Homicide:	20.4
Forcible rape:	2.4
Robbery:	138.3
Aggravated assault:	78.8
Violent crime:	239.9
Burglary:	484
Larceny-theft:	837.4
Motor vehicle theft:	177.1
Property crime:	1,498.5
Notes * Number of reported crimes per 100,000 population. *Compare with other cities
Source: FBI 2008 UCR data

Crime in Puerto Rico has been linked to the insurmountable amount of drugs that come in and out of the island. Located in the Caribbean, it has become a major transshipment point for drugs into mainland United States.^[1] Violent and property crimes have increased due in part to dealers trying to keep their drug business afloat, using guns and violence to protect themselves, their turfs, and drug habits.^[2]

Drugs is not the only crime that has plagued the island. Police and political corruption has also been a problem as has gangs, which contribute to the drug problem and crime in Puerto Rico.

Drug trafficking

The Port of San Juan is one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Puerto Rico has become a transshipment point for illegal drugs that are smuggled from source countries like Colombia and Peru, into the U.S. mainland. Most of it is transported to and through the island from Drug Trafficking Organizations in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, and criminal organizations in Puerto Rico.^[3]

Cocaine

One of the most common ways to smuggle cocaine into the island is through commercial and private maritime vessels, and container terminals such as the Port of San Juan. It is the busiest port in the Caribbean and the second largest in the west.^[4] Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized 1,176.74 pounds of cocaine in 2001 from commercial maritime vessels and 14, 932.53 pounds of cocaine from private maritime vessels in Puerto Rico. Go-fast boats are the most favorable, as they are fast and stealthy, and have been used to intercept drug shipments that have been dropped off into the open water from other larger ships or airdropped from aircraft.^[5] In 2005, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized 1,772 kilograms of cocaine in a cargo ship from Venezuela, during a routine inspection.^[6]

Heroin

In 2001, U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico seized 56 kilograms of heroin from commercial aircraft at airports and 28 kilograms of heroin from commercial maritime vessels in Puerto Rico. That same year, government officials arrested seven individuals in Puerto Rico, for swallowing between 36 and 98 condoms full of heroin, when they arrived from Aruba on a cruise ship. In June 2002, drug detecting dogs detected and CBP seized 24 kilograms of heroin in a cargo storage area on a pier in San Juan. That same year federal law enforcement officials in San Juan seized 1.4 kilograms of heroin from a passenger arriving from Aruba on a cruise ship.^[7]

Marijuana

The primary transporters of marijuana into the island, are from crime organizations within Puerto Rico, transporting the drugs as couriers aboard commercial aircraft, hidden in suitcases, and delivered by package delivery services through the mail. In 2001, CBP confiscated 205 kilos of marijuana at airports throughout Puerto Rico. In 2002, a resident of San Juan was arrested at the airport, when government officials found 12.7 kilograms of marijuana hidden in his luggage.^[8]

Police corruption

In 2008, 4 police officers in Puerto Rico were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), including a Lieutenant with 33 years on the force, for extortion and distribution of cocaine and heroin.^[9] In 2007, 9 police officers and their lieutenant were arrested for planting drug evidence, including cocaine, heroin, and crack, on people living in the city's low-income housing projects, prompting Puerto Rico's attorney general's office to review previous cases, making sure no innocent people were put in prison.^[10] Between 2003 and 2007, 100 officers had been under investigation and 75 others convicted under federal court for police corruption.^[11]

In 2001, one of the biggest police corruption busts in U.S. history took place in Puerto Rico, when 28 state police officers in Puerto Rico were arrested for drug-running charges. The yearlong undercover operation was initiated by the FBI, after authorities got a tip about the police possibly being involved in drug dealing, and protecting cocaine dealers and shipments and movement throughout the island.^[12] Between 1993 and 2000, 1,000 police officers in Puerto Rico lost their jobs from the department due to criminal charges.^[13] Police corruption in Puerto Rico stems from the fact that police officers make small wages and are so close to the cocaine trafficking.^[14]

Operation Guard Shack was an two-year FBI investigation into law enforcement corruption in Puerto Rico.^[15] The operation came to a conclusion on 6 October 2010 with a series of predawn raids that led to over 130 ^[16] arrests of members of the Puerto Rico Police Department, various municipal departments, and the Puerto Rico Corrections Department.^[17] The operation began at 3 a.m., when 65 tactical teams, including FBI SWAT and the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), fanned out across the island in a series of sneak attack arrests. On hand were a range of Bureau personnel—crisis negotiators, evidence response team members, canines and their handlers, and 80 medical personnel from first responders and nurses to a trauma surgeon and a veterinarian. The central thread of the corruption was law enforcement officers providing protection and other services to drug traffickers. Over 1,000 agents of the FBI conducted the raids. Many of them were flown in secretly. The agency characterized the action as, "likely the largest police corruption case in the FBI’s history."^[15]

Political corruption

In 2008, Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila of Puerto Rico, was charged with 24 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and tax crimes related to his campaign finances.^[18] During his trial, the judge threw out 15 of the 24 federal corruption charges due to insufficient evidence by the prosecution, and was eventually acquitted of all charges against him due to lack of evidence.^[19][20] The same year, Puerto Rican Senator Jorge de Castro Font, member of the New Progressive Party (NPP), was arrested by the FBI and charged with 32 criminal counts of extortion, bribery, fraud, and money laundering, stemming back as early as 1996.^[21]

In 2009, he pled guilty to federal corruption charges. In exchange for his plead, prosecutors agreed to drop 10 of the original charges against him and are recommending a prison sentence of between 9 and 11 years.^[22] In 2007, Jose Granados Navedo, the former deputy speaker of Puerto Rico's lower house from 1992–2000, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and was sentenced to 3 years in prison for accepting kickbacks from contractors and using his influence in getting the builders to work on the Superaqueduct of the North.^[23]

Gangs

The development of gangs in Puerto Rico has been attributed to the drug trafficking on the island giving them control to most of the trafficking points on the island. Because drugs are trafficked through and into the island from other source countries, they are less expensive than in any other place in the United States, attracting gangs on the island. It is cheap and easy for them to buy and deal to the public in housing projects in Puerto Rico, leading to the second highest homicide rates in the United States.^[24]

In the 1970s, Los Ñetas, an adult prison gang, may have been the origin of gangs in Puerto Rico when they banded together for protection against prison guards and horrible conditions in Puerto Rican prisons. Los Ñetas have spread to U.S. prison systems in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and have been known to be involved in drug and weapons trafficking, extortion, robbery, assault, money laundering, and murder.^[25]

Other gangs like, El Grupo 25 de Enero del 1981, was created in response to protection from Los Ñetas, in the prison system. El Grupo 27, is a closely related gang to El Grupo 25 de Enero del 1981, as its members are juveniles who have family members in 25 de Enero gang. They have been known to be involved in the selling of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in Puerto Rico.^[26]

Crime reduction

The Puerto Rican government has implemented a series of law enforcement operations in relation to the federal "war on drugs" in order to minimize drug related crimes and trafficking on the island. In 1985, the government started Operation Greenback, an investigation by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), into the inconsistencies between the drastic increase of cash flow into the Puerto Rican economy and the double digit unemployment rate and bad economy in the 70s and early 1980s. The operation uncovered money laundering schemes from within financial institutions and from the sale of illegal lottery ticket sales. Federal agents raided 10 banks and arrested 17 people on money laundering charges.^[27]

In 1990, Operation Lucky Strike, was put in motion by the FBI and local law enforcement officials, when residents of Vega Baja unearthed $20 million dollars on a nearby farm. They tried to stop the circulation of the illegal money and mobilized to arrest the individuals connected to the money.^[28] In 1993, the Puerto Rican government used the National Guard to help local police in controlling street crime, and later used the military to invade about a dozen public housing projects in and around San Juan, that police deemed as "hot spots" for drug-related crimes. The operation produced the seizure of 1,200 bags of cocaine, 216 bags of marijuana, 369 capsules of crack, 1,142 bags of heroin, 3 kilos of rock cocaine, and 1 kilo of heroin.^[29]

Sudden murder rise in 2011

2011 points to be the most violent year in recorded history, as it is projected that about 1,100 to 1,300 murders will be recorded by the end of the year, this due to the inefficient work from the local police, which has been even been demanded from the Federal Government to change the way they deal with crimes such as robbery, murder and assault, among other things; high unemployment, as many people are struggling to pay their debts and desperation is making people more and more aggressive, thus the rise of murders by assault, theft and carjackings. Recently a father and husband that was coming from his job was car-jacked while putting gas to his car, taken to his home and asked for gold and jewelry, as he could not deliver what the thieves wanted, the man was shot to death in front of his family. Similar murders have occurred, especially by domiciliary robbery, most of them in the form of senicides (killing of older people). Many of the senicides have been reported to be from nearby family members.

References

1. ^ National Drug Intelligence Center. "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Drug Threat Assessment." U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). print.
2. ^ Montalvo-Barbot, Alfredo. "Crime in Puerto Rico: drug trafficking, money laundering, and the poor." Crime and Delinquency 43.4 (1997): 533-548. print.
3. ^ National Drug Intelligence Center. "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Drug Threat Assessment." U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). print.
4. ^ "Puerto Rico tourism." International Cruise & Ferry Review (2003): 202+. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
5. ^ National Drug Intelligence Center. "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Drug Threat Assessment." U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). print.
6. ^ "Two tons of cocaine seized in Puerto Rico." EFE World News Service 5 October 2005. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
7. ^ National Drug Intelligence Center. "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Drug Threat Assessment." U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). print.
8. ^ National Drug Intelligence Center. "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands Drug Threat Assessment." U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). print.
9. ^ "FBI arrests 4 Puerto Rican police for corruption." EFE World News Service 19 December 2008. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
10. ^ "Prosecutors charge Puerto Rican police with corruption." Miami Herald [Miami, FL] 23 August 2007. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
11. ^ "Police corruption undermines Puerto Rican drug war." Miami Herald [Miami, FL] 18 July 2007. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
12. ^ Lichtblau, Eric. "The Nation; 28 Puerto Rico Police Caught in Drug Sting." Los Angeles Times 15 August 2001: A-14. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
13. ^ "Police corruption undermines Puerto Rican drug war." Miami Herald [Miami, FL] 18 July 2007. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
14. ^ Lichtblau, Eric. "The Nation; 28 Puerto Rico Police Caught in Drug Sting." Los Angeles Times 15 August 2001: A-14. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
15. ^ ^{a b} http://www.fbi.gov/page2/oct10/sanjuan_100610.html
16. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/06/puerto.rico.arrests/index.html
17. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/06/national/main6932519.shtml
18. ^ "Puerto Rico governor pleads not guilty." UPI NewsTrack 29 March 2008. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
19. ^ "Judge throws out 15 federal corruption charges against Puerto Rico governor." EFE World News Service 1 December 2008. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
20. ^ "Carlton Fields Client Acquitted of Corruption Along With Ex-Governor of Puerto Rico." Marketwire 23 March 2009. InfoTrac Custom Newspapers. Web. 7 June 2010.
21. ^ "FBI arrests prominent Puerto Rico senator on corruption charges." EFE World News Service 3 October 2008. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
22. ^ "Former Puerto Rico lawmaker pleads guilty to corruption." USA Today 21 January 2009. Web. 7 June 2010.
23. ^ "Puerto Rican pol sentenced to 3 years for graft." EFE World News Service 20 April 2007. General OneFile. Web. 7 June 2010.
24. ^ Torres-Rivera, Edil and Phan, Loan T. "The Gang Problem in Puerto Rico." Journal of Addiction & Offender Counseling 25.2 (2005) : 90-96. Print.
25. ^ Torres-Rivera, Edil and Phan, Loan T. "The Gang Problem in Puerto Rico." Journal of Addiction & Offender Counseling 25.2 (2005) : 90-96. Print.
26. ^ Torres-Rivera, Edil and Phan, Loan T. "The Gang Problem in Puerto Rico." Journal of Addiction & Offender Counseling 25.2 (2005) : 90-96. Print.
27. ^ Montalvo-Barbot, Alfredo. "Crime in Puerto Rico: drug trafficking, money laundering, and the poor." Crime and Delinquency 43.4 (1997): 533-548. print.
28. ^ Montalvo-Barbot, Alfredo. "Crime in Puerto Rico: drug trafficking, money laundering, and the poor." Crime and Delinquency 43.4 (1997): 533-548. print.
29. ^ Montalvo-Barbot, Alfredo. "Crime in Puerto Rico: drug trafficking, money laundering, and the poor." Crime and Delinquency 43.4 (1997): 533-548. print.

	Puerto Rico portal
	Criminal justice portal

External links

• Puerto Rico Police Department official website
• Puerto Rico Herald Crime and Punishment
• Puerto Rico Herald Crime and Corruption