Defense attorney of notorious drug lord sentenced to 5 years

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A defense attorney for notorious Puerto Rican drug lord Jose D. Figueroa-Agosto, aka Junior Capsula, was sentenced Friday to 71 months in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to commit money laundering. The probe that spurred his arrest, guilty plea and subsequent sentence was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI.

Ramon M. Negron-Colón, 65, of Bayamon, is an attorney licensed to practice law in Puerto Rico. He represented the notorious Puerto Rican drug lord Jose D. Figueroa-Agosto in judicial proceedings in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. During the fall of 1995, Figueroa-Agosto was convicted in state court and sentenced to 208 years. On November 1999, he utilized false documents to escape from a correctional facility. He remained a fugitive for more than a decade until he was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges July 18, 2010.

The indictment alleges that the object of the conspiracy was to nullify Figueroa-Agosto’s sentence through illegal payments made with the proceeds of Figueroa-Agosto’s narcotics trafficking.

The indictment further alleges that beginning on a date unknown, but not later than 2007 until August 2013, Negron-Colon and co-defendant Barreto-Ortiz knowingly conducted and attempted to conduct financial transactions affecting interstate commerce, which involved transactions with the proceeds of drug trafficking.

In late 2007, Negron-Colon indicated that the total cost of obtaining the nullification of Figueroa Agosto’s conviction and sentence would be between $2.5 and $3 million in order to funnel illegal payments to public officials of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Negron-Colon received a few payments from individuals on different occasions in order to further the goals of the conspiracy.