{"id":28048,"date":"2015-09-05T00:52:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T00:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=28048"},"modified":"2015-09-05T01:00:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-05T01:00:15","slug":"six-men-facing-life-in-prison-for-conspiracy-to-possess-cocaine-with-intent-to-distribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=28048","title":{"rendered":"Six Men Facing Life In Prison For Conspiracy To Possess Cocaine With Intent To Distribute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today arrested six men\u00a0from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on a criminal complaint charging them with conspiracy to\u00a0possess cocaine with intent to distribute, United States Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.<\/p>\n<p>Three\u00a0Dominican nationals, Alexandro Gerandino-Aracena, 39, Marco Asala, 35, and Pedro Antion Beltre\u00a0Guzman, 36, and three men from Puerto Rico, Ricardo Cardona, 35, Wilfredo Perez, 30, and Jose Luis\u00a0Ponce, 36, made their initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller. Judge Miller\u00a0remanded the men into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending a preliminary and detention\u00a0hearing on September 8, 2015.<\/p>\n<p>According to the complaint, the men conspired to possess more than five kilograms of cocaine.\u00a0The maximum sentence for conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute is life in prison and a\u00a0fine of $50 million.<\/p>\n<p>United States Attorney Sharpe reminds the public that a complaint is merely a formal charging\u00a0document and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven\u00a0guilty.<\/p>\n<p>This case is the result of a joint investigation by the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs\u00a0Enforcement\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today arrested six men\u00a0from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on a criminal complaint charging them with conspiracy to\u00a0possess cocaine with intent to distribute, United States Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced. Three\u00a0Dominican nationals, Alexandro Gerandino-Aracena, 39, Marco Asala, 35, and Pedro Antion Beltre\u00a0Guzman, 36, and three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,191,2474,147],"tags":[3144],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Six Men Facing Life In Prison For Conspiracy To Possess Cocaine With Intent To Distribute - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ST. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Six Men Facing Life In Prison For Conspiracy To Possess Cocaine With Intent To Distribute - V.I. Consortium","description":"ST. 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