Operation Lost Honor was the English translation of the name of a prominent investigation, "Honor Perdido." [1] The investigation targeted police corruption in Puerto Rico that took place in August 2001. Organized by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and led by Special Agent Jeffrey Pelaez,Puerto Rico Police Officer Elvin Quinones, and undercover agent Arturo Ortiz (EXPO), the investigation was initiated in response to multiple reports about illegal activity within the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD). [2] The twelve-month-long undercover operation targeted law enforcement officials suspected of involvement with the drug trade on the island. At the time it was the biggest case of officer corruption that the FBI had ever dealt with. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Thirty-two police officers were caught on videotape trafficking drugs in the undercover operation by the elite FBI Special Operations Group (SOG). Initiated after receiving multiple reports of police officers involved directly in drug trafficking, police officers were videotaped unloading boats carrying cocaine, transporting cocaine in their squad cars, providing advice on the best way to dispose of homicide victims, and offering to commit murder. [3] The operation additionally aimed to stop the illicit protection provided to some cocaine dealers who shipped their contraband throughout the island. Thirty-four individuals were arrested in the case. [3] [7] Criminal activities offered by the targeted officers include one individual's agreement to kill a drug dealer for US$20,000 in cash. An evidence technician provided help on how to dispose of a homicide victim. Rogelio Guevara, special agent in charge of the DEA's Caribbean Field Division, commented that those arrested "don't deserve the honor of being called police officers". [3]
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Operation Lost Honor was the biggest case of officer corruption that the FBI had ever dealt with. [3] Orlando Sentinel journalist Ivan Roman said that the bust "stunned a department already reeling from a series of" previous scandals. [3]
Continuing issues regarding police misconduct and other problems dogged the PRPD years after Operation Lost Honor. [7]
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is one of the largest Caribbean and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954.
The Supreme Team was an organized crime syndicate that operated throughout the 1980s in New York City. Their headquarters was in Baisley Park, in South Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York. The leaders were Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and his nephew, Gerald "Prince" Miller. In 1989, McGriff spent 10 years in a federal prison for a narcotics conviction.
Thomas A. Constantine served as the 6th Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from March 1994 to July 1999.
The NETA Association is the name of a gang that began in the Puerto Rico prison system and spread to the United States mainland. Although Puerto Rico has many small street gangs claiming its poorer neighborhoods, NETAS is by far the largest and most dominant, controlling the illegal drug trade in the island's prison system.
The Jungles faction of the Black P. Stones street gang is a division ("set") of the Bloods gang alliance in Los Angeles. Originating in Los Angeles' Baldwin Village neighborhood in the 1960s, the Black P. Stones became one of the largest gangs in the city. The gang has been linked to various crimes, including murders, assaults, robberies, narcotics violations and firearms violations, and has been the subject of numerous FBI and LAPD investigations.
The Puerto Rico Police, officially the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, is a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the entire Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a division of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety, alongside the Puerto Rico Special Investigations Bureau and the Puerto Rico Municipal Police and handles both traffic and criminal law enforcement in the commonwealth. As of 2020, the Puerto Rico Police force had 11,532 members. It is organized into thirteen regions within the island for operational purposes. Its headquarters are located at 601 Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue in San Juan.
Operation Tarnished Shield was a three-year sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Highway Patrol to root out political corruption in Cookeville, Tennessee, which included the arrest of two former law enforcement officers.
Operation Greenback was a Miami, Florida-based, multi-agency U.S. government task force targeting money laundering connected to drug trafficking.
The Trinitarios is an Dominican American criminal organization founded by Dominicans in New York City, New York in 1993.
The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club is a one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club. The club was formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1954. The club has undergone a number of large-scale police and FBI investigations, most notably in 1973, 1987 and 2007. In the early 1970s several members were convicted of bombings and raids of the homes and the clubhouses of rival motorcycle clubs.
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, lord of drugs, or narcotrafficker is a type of crime boss, who is in charge of a drug-trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
The Illegal drug trade in Puerto Rico is a problem from a criminal, social, and medical perspective. Located in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico has become a major transshipment point for drugs into the United States. 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.
Illegal drug trade in Venezuela is the practice of illegal drug trading in Venezuela. Venezuela has been a path to the United States for cocaine originating in Colombia, through Central America and Mexico and Caribbean countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In the 2010s, Venezuela also gradually became a major producer of cocaine.
The Metropolitan Detention Center, Guaynabo is a United States federal prison facility in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico which holds male and female inmates of all security levels who are awaiting trial or sentencing. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
Operation Guard Shack was a two-year Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into corruption within the law enforcement of Puerto Rico. The operation came to a conclusion on 6 October 2010, with a series of pre-dawn raids that led to over 130 arrests of members of the Puerto Rico Police Department and the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as well as other individuals.
The Puerto Rican Mob/The Puerto Rican mafia, consists of 6 crime families, in the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico around the cities of San Juan, Aguadilla, Añasco and Isabela. The family was founded by Quitoni Martinez, José "Coquito" López Rosario whom later split from the Family to form his own which became a family within the Puerto Rican mafia, Henry Vega, Iván Vega, and Luis Albertos Rodríguez. They had strong connections with The Cali Cartel and small connections with Los Pepes, Paulino Organization, Gulf Cartel and the Puerto Rican street gang Ñetas.
The Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos, is a Puerto Rican criminal organization based in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. It is an organization dedicated to drug dealing and unifying various well-known dealers under one umbrella group. Established in 1995, by 2009, when 37 members of the organization were arrested, it had become the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Puerto Rico. US$100 million was forfeited during the siege by the Bayamón Task Force and other authorities. It began with the purposes of unifying criminal elements but often ended in turf wars and revenge killings.
Louis "Lou" Diaz is an American former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who was largely responsible for the arrest and conviction of New York drug kingpin Nicky Barnes. He was also instrumental in dismantling "The Council," Barnes's drug trafficking organization. As an undercover agent, he also brought down members of the Medellin Cartel. Diaz is also an author and actor.
Crime in Puerto Rico describes acts of violent and non-violent crime that take place within the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade Motorcycle Division, also known as the Aryan Nations Motorcycle Riders Division, was the name of a white supremacist outlaw motorcycle club set up by law enforcement units as an undercover operation to investigate crime and domestic terrorism within the neo-Nazi movement.
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