Source: United States Department of Justice News
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Miguel Ángel Agosto-Pacheco, a.k.a. “Chino,” was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Francisco A. Besosa to 14 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, announced United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, W. Stephen Muldrow. Agosto-Pacheco pleaded guilty on December 6, 2022.
According to admissions made in connection with his plea, between approximately February 2017 and February 2018, Agosto-Pacheco served as the manager of the Puerto Rican branch of an international drug trafficking organization. During that timeframe, the organization coordinated the shipment of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Venezuela and into Puerto Rico.
As part of his plea agreement, Agosto-Pacheco admitted to conspiring to import millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine into Puerto Rico on two specific occasions. First, in November 2017, Agosto-Pacheco conspired to import approximately 417 kilograms of cocaine. Second, in December 2017, Agosto-Pacheco conspired to import approximately 285 kilograms of cocaine.
In late 2022, Agosto-Pacheco’s five co-defendants all pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine and were sentenced as follows:
- Jerry Omar Hernández-Peña—120 months
- Luis A. Vázquez-Rodriguez—120 months
- Anthony Jael Abreu-Matos—120 months
- Luis Ángel Ramos-Cordero—120 months
- Juan Tapia-Soto—96 months
U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow of the District of Puerto Rico and Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Denise Foster made the announcement.
The DEA was in charge of the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Max Pérez-Bouret and Carlos R. Cardona, as well as former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan E. Jacobson, prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
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