The United States Department of Justice has indicted 81 people on alleged drug and weapons violations as part of a crackdown on a Puerto Rican criminal group called Los Baja Deo (LBD). Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges on Thursday during a visit to Puerto Rico, a day after the FBI and Puerto Rico Police Department arrested 70 of the defendants.
"Let this be a warning to those that are terrorizing our communities," Blanche said in a statement. "Our Homeland Security Task Forces around the country are unified to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States."
The mass indictment is part of an effort under President Donald Trump to weaken and dismantle criminal organizations across the Western Hemisphere. His administration has called the hemisphere "America's neighborhood" and pledged to take hardline, sometimes lethal, action against those it considers "narco-terrorists."
The indictment alleges that, starting in 2021, LBD members distributed drugs in and around public housing projects and neighborhoods in Mayaguez, a city in western Puerto Rico. They are also accused of using the US Postal Service to send drugs from the island, a US territory. Among the substances allegedly trafficked were heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana.
According to the Justice Department, LBD distributed at least 340kg of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics and at least 2,200kg of cocaine in the last five years, generating more than $49 million in proceeds. The indictment also accuses members of using violence, including murders and kidnappings, to protect their drug-trafficking conspiracy.
Defendants facing drug-related charges alone could face at least 10 years in prison, while those accused of both drug and firearms charges could face a minimum of 15 years. The maximum penalty in both cases is life imprisonment if convicted. The Justice Department is also seeking to seize $49.7 million in assets.
FBI Director Kash Patel praised the law enforcement work as "outstanding" and touted the arrests as a blow to drug trafficking into the US mainland. "These arrests disrupted one of western Puerto Rico's most violent drug-trafficking organizations, dismantled its leadership and distribution networks, and cut off yet another key pipeline of dealt drugs flowing into our country," Patel said.
The arrests were conducted as part of Trump's Homeland Security Task Force, established by executive order in 2025 to target cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations. The network has over 9,000 federal agents, task force officers, and analysts.
Since taking office for a second term, Trump has sought to beef up government efforts against drug traffickers, including designating Latin American criminal groups as "foreign terrorist organizations." However, critics have warned that such designations have been used to justify extrajudicial killing and other abuses of power. Since September 2, 2025, the Trump administration has repeatedly bombed small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, allegedly transporting drugs, killing 227 people with no evidence presented and victims' identities largely unknown.
Source: www.aljazeera.com