Illegal drug trade in Puerto Rico
[5] During this era, a person named Rafy Dones surfaced as one of the first, alleged major drug traffickers operating in Puerto Rico;[7] he was sentenced to a jail term on 30 September 1977.
[9] Strategies used by the government of Puerto Rico include long sentences for criminals, increased funding for law enforcement equipment, and the construction of new prisons.
[12][13][14] The FBI, with its field office in San Juan, along with the Department of Homeland Security, and the DEA[15][16] have multiple task forces working on the illegal drug trade 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.
[19][20] In 1996, a group of researchers from Puerto Rico's Mental Health and Anti Addiction Services Administration, published the results of a study involving 849 out-of-treatment drug users in the San Juan area.
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.
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.
[2] Addicts "shooting up" with dirty needles has created a public health emergency in Puerto Rico with an HIV positive rate that is 4 times higher than the U.S. national average.
[2] In 2008, four 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.
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.
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.
"[30] It is cheap and easy to buy and deal to the public in housing projects in Puerto Rico, leading to the second highest homicide rates in the United States or its territories.
[33] 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.
[3] 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 on a nearby farm.
