Crime in Puerto Rico

[3] In the early twenty-first century police corruption facilitated drug related crimes; it resulted in the arrest of over thirty Puerto Rico law enforcement agents.

[4] A number of drug cartels discovered that Puerto Rico functioned as an efficient transfer point while trafficking contraband such as cocaine to the mainland United States, and has been a magnet for organized crime for several decades.

[4] The existence of apparent 'no man's land' areas, in which all manner of criminal activity could take place without any sort of police control, among particularly lower-class communities caused widespread concern.

[4] Perceptions about widespread crime triggered political turmoil and sustained pressure for the authorities to change their approaches, often involving a doubling-down of anti-drug crackdowns.

A government chief of staff remarked that the police had witnessed "housewives who go to these [drug distribution] spots with their children in the car" and vowed to send a strong message.

Specific changes in the anti-crime efforts have included assigning police officers with more weapons and targeted intervention of the National Guard in certain places.

[4] In response to pervasive crime, local law enforcement attempted to integrate their efforts with U.S. federal agencies, especially with fighting trafficking in mind.

The Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), the territory's primary law enforcement agency, has been tarnished by multiple scandals over officer misconduct up to and including outright criminal activity.

Coming after authorities suspected local police of direct involvement in drug dealing, some officers even being bold enough to sell heroin from their squad cars, the bust additionally aimed to stop the illicit protection provided to certain cocaine dealers who shipped their contraband throughout the island.

[11] As well, four Puerto Rican officers were arrested in 2008 by the FBI, including the director of the island's Extradition Division, for extortion as well as the distribution of both cocaine and heroin.

The previous year, the violent death of trafficking kingpin Jose "Coquito" Lopez Rosario had spawned an investigation into the upper levels of the territory's government.

[3] The massive bust on Puerto Rican soil as a result of Operation Guard Shack generated international media coverage, with publications such as the American CNN and the British Daily Telegraph reporting on it.

Then Police Association President Jose Rodriguez reported in 2007 that Puerto Ricans patrolling the streets made about twenty-six thousand dollars a year.

Rodriguez additionally pointed out how local sergeants supervised thirty to thirty-five officers— in contrast to the average of ten in the continental U.S.[3] Puerto Rico's murder rate dropped somewhat from the 1990s into the 2000s, yet violent crime remained significantly higher not just at a regional but also on an international scale.

While stating that many "hard working and dedicated" officers "serve the public with distinction under often challenging conditions", the investigators declared that the violations "uncovered are pervasive and plague all levels of" the department.

[15] Police Superintendent Hector Pesquera remarked in 2017 that Puerto Rico's crime problem had been mostly "out of sight, out of mind" to mainland Americans before the hurricane and no longer was.

[16] Nonetheless, individuals such as former Police Superintendent Miguel Pereira have observed that the large profit margins associated with illegal drugs in Puerto Rico, the high demand being driven by multiple social problems, will foster criminal acts no matter what law enforcement tries to do.

Thus, Pereira publicly lamented, criminals could even lose a full 90% of their supply through anti-drug efforts and still receive significant returns; for instance, a mobster cleaned out of all but 100 of his initial 1,000 kilos could still manage to become a millionaire from those leftovers alone.

[18][19] Illegal drugs are routed from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, continue through Puerto Rico and on to Newark, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Orlando, Florida.

[1] In the aftermath of 2017's Hurricane Maria, Miami Herald journalist David Ovalle wrote, [T]he future for law enforcement on the island is bleak.

Hundreds of U.S. Army soldiers, outside law-enforcement officers and private security guards are helping— temporarily— but robberies, murders and drug dealing have resumed at levels that would seem outrageous in mainland states but are tragically normal here.

[31][32] These murders attracted large media and public attention which increased demands from women seeking assistance in cases of gender based violence.