Dominican politician arrested on cocaine-trafficking charges in Miami
A Dominican politician who flew to Miami to attend a son’s graduation was arrested upon arrival on charges of cocaine trafficking.
Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic, was part of an international drug ring that operated in the Dominican Republic, Colombia and the United States from 2014 to 2017, according to prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Getchell told a magistrate judge Tuesday that he will be seeking to detain Gutierrez Diaz, 58, before trial based on a risk of flight and danger to the community. Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes set the detention hearing and arraignment for Friday.
An indictment charges Gutierrez Diaz and two others with conspiring to distribute cocaine, knowing that it would be imported into the United States; conspiring to import cocaine into the United States; and conspiring to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it. The indictment was unsealed Tuesday, so Gutierrez Diaz had no idea he had been charged by the grand jury when he arrived at Miami International Airport Monday night.
His defense attorney, Dennis Urbano, said he could not comment about the case.
If convicted, Gutierrez Diaz, who is from Santiago, Dominican Republic, faces up to life in prison. He is being held at the Federal Detention Center after his arrest by federal agents Monday night at MIA.
His arrest in Miami dominated news media coverage in the island nation. According to Dominican news accounts, Gutierrez Diaz entered politics in 2018, the year after the alleged drugtrafficking conspiracy ended.
Campaign videos available on Facebook indicate that Gutierrez Diaz is a member of the Dominican Republic’s Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which is described as a liberal/ progressive party. The country’s president, Luis Abinader, is also a member of the same party.
Gutierrez Diaz was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in the Dominican Republic’s bicameral legislature.
Prosecutors from the Southern District of Florida’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section are handling the case, which was investigated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.