A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico has indicted 49 alleged gang members from Bayamón on charges related to drug trafficking and firearms violations. The announcement was made by W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. The investigation involved several agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Puerto Rico Police Bayamón Strike Force, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), with support from the U.S. Marshals Service, local municipal police departments, and Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations.
The indictment alleges that since 2019, the group operated as a drug trafficking organization called “Bin Laden Records.” They are accused of distributing drugs such as heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana, fentanyl, Oxycodone (Percocet), and Alprazolam (Xanax) within close proximity to public housing projects and schools in Bayamón. According to prosecutors, the group also engaged in violent acts to protect their operations and moved significant quantities of cocaine into the continental United States.
“Today is the anniversary of 9/11 – the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil that took nearly 3,000 innocent lives. After the attack, Americans came together in unity, resolve, and determination to confront those who sought to harm us.Today, we face another threat to our communities – one that comes to use from criminal cartels – now rightly designated as foreign terrorist organizations – flooding our streets with fentanyl, other deadly drugs, and violence. In recent years, overdose deaths, mostly from fentanyl, have averaged over 100,000 per year. Just as 9/11 demanded a national response, the toll of gang violence and drug trafficking in our communities demands action and unity,” said U.S. Attorney Muldrow. “The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners, including those who participated in this morning’s operation, are responding and taking action to make our communities and our streets safer. We are unified and our resolve is firm.”
Gordon Mallory of ATF’s Miami Field Division commented on law enforcement collaboration: “This investigation, which falls directly under the Attorney General’s ‘Commitment to Targeting Violent Crime’ is an example of how working together with our federal state and local partners creates an outcome that is positive for the community,” he said. “The men and women of ATF continuously strive to take the necessary measures to fight violent crime to include the illegal use and possession of firearms. Because of the hard work of these individuals,the residents of this community can take their neighborhood(s) back.”
Prosecutors say some defendants blocked access points at public housing developments using shopping carts in order to obstruct law enforcement activities.
Sixteen defendants face additional charges related to possessing firearms during drug crimes; five are charged with possessing machineguns while engaged in drug trafficking offenses. If convicted on all counts—including narcotics forfeiture totaling $50 million—sentences could range from a minimum ten years up to life imprisonment; machinegun-related convictions carry mandatory thirty-year sentences consecutive to any other penalties.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alberto López-Rocafort,Theresa Zapata-Valladares,and Andrés Orr Sevilla along with Special AUSA Javier Rivera Rivera will prosecute this case.
Authorities emphasized that all individuals named remain presumed innocent until proven guilty.
