{"id":44221,"date":"2016-09-10T12:16:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T12:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=44221"},"modified":"2016-09-10T12:16:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T12:16:40","slug":"puerto-rico-man-pleads-guilty-possession-cocaine-intent-distribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=44221","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico Man Pleads Guilty To Possession Of Cocaine With Intent To Distribute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. CROIX &#8212; Carmelo Cruz-Velez, 52, of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court on St. Croix to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, United States Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to October 21, 2014, Cruz-Velez and his co-conspirators agreed to import cocaine into St. Croix and deliver it to others. On October 21, 2014, his co-conspirators retrieved a mid-sea shipment of cocaine totaling 71 kilograms and brought it to St. Croix pursuant to the agreement. Subsequently, Cruz-Velez, knowing of the plan, took possession of the cocaine and delivered it to another individual.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz-Velez faces up to life imprisonment for the offense and a fine of up to $10,000,000. A sentencing date has been set for January 16, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alphonso Andrews, Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. CROIX &#8212; Carmelo Cruz-Velez, 52, of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court on St. Croix to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute, United States Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced. Prior to October 21, 2014, Cruz-Velez and his co-conspirators agreed to import cocaine into St. Croix and deliver [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4400,191,147],"tags":[5745,5744,3015,4307,5004,121],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Puerto Rico Man Pleads Guilty To Possession Of Cocaine With Intent To Distribute - V.I. 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