Puerto Rican man sentenced to 354 months in prison for drug trafficking, illegal possession of firearms

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Following a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) probe, U.S. District Judge Pedro A. Delgado-Hernández sentenced, April 7, a Puerto Rican man to 354 months in prison for a conspiracy to possess, with intent to distribute, heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine, marijuana, oxycodone and alprazolam; and the possession of firearms in the commission of a drug trafficking crime.

HSI special agents arrested Oscar Luis Mendoza-Flores, 26, of Cayey, in November 2015, during the execution of Operation Family Feud, an HSI operation launched to dismantle a criminal organization operating in the Luis Muñoz Marín and Brisas de Cayey public housing projects and the San Tomás and Canteras wards, all in the municipality of Cayey. The operation netted 31 criminal arrests.

The charging document alleged that beginning in 2008, the organization, of which Mendoza-Flores belonged, acted in different roles such as leaders, managers, enforcers, runners, drug processors, enforcers and lookouts in order to further the goals of the conspiracy.

The indictment also alleged that, as part the conspiracy, some of the defendants used social media to post pictures of co-conspirators in possession of firearms to threaten witnesses and promote their drug trafficking activities. The defendants would take pictures of themselves in possession of firearms and drugs with cellular phones and distributed them as a means of intimidation.

HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI's workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 Special Agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI's international presence represents DHS's largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.