A former Puerto Rican police officer was sentenced today to 30 years in prison in New York, after he was accused of “horrible crimes”, including murder, and for his collaboration with the group of drug traffickers known as La ONU de Bayamon.
For more than a decade, Puerto Rican William Vázquez Báez collaborated with the “United Drug Trafficking Organization” or the ONU, which led to his conviction by District Judge Jesse M. Furman.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has just announced that Vázquez Báez, a former member of the Puerto Rico Police Department, received his sentence after pleading guilty in August 2021 to “one count of participation on a racketeering conspiracy and another count of participation in a conspiracy to commit murder for hire.”
These crimes were committed within the framework of an agreement to cooperate with the ONU, a gang that trafficked controlled substances to New York and distributed them from a care center in the Bronx.
Federal prosecutor Damian Williams said: “Vázquez Báez abused his position as a police officer to help a vicious drug trafficking organization distribute massive quantities of cocaine and slaughter the citizens he had sworn to protect. Today Vázquez Báez has been justly sentenced to 30 years in prison for his horrible crimes.”
According to the indictment, other files in this case and witness statements during the judicial process against the Puerto Rican, Vázquez Báez -a native of Cayey- collaborated with the criminal organization between 2004 and May 2017 when he was arrested by the federal agency Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Vázquez Báez had joined the Puerto Rico Police in 1994 and some 10 years later he became involved with the ONU. From then until 2016, prosecutors were able to prove that he helped distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine, including cocaine that was shipped from Puerto Rico to New York and then distributed from the care center.
During that period, the ONU protected its territory and drug trade through numerous acts of violence. Its members paid Vázquez Báez a salary to abuse his position as a police officer to promote the interests of the ONU, committing acts of corruption.
Vázquez Báez provided narcotics and key information that he obtained thanks to the Police’s internal intelligence, including information from the Uniformed narcotics unit.
Members of the ONU also contacted Vázquez Báez when transporting large quantities of cocaine within San Juan to ensure that the shipment avoided police controls.
The then agent also distributed payments to other corrupt policemen who helped the ONU.
But that was not all. Vázquez Báez also helped the ONU in acts of violence.
Between 2006 and 2007, he alerted ONU members that Freddy Méndez-Rivera, a local resident, had complained to police about drug trafficking in his neighborhood, which led ONU members to kidnap and kill Mendez-Rivera.
In the middle of the kidnapping, Vázquez Báez alerted a high-ranking member of the ONU that the police radio was sending information about the victim’s disappearance.
He did not stop there, since Méndez-Rivera was known throughout the Carolina Narcotics Division, Vázquez Báez advised the ONU that the body should never be discovered.
When told later that the man had been killed, Vázquez Báez laughed and commented that Méndez-Rivera would not give police any more information.
On or about May 9, 2007, members of the ONU continued to work with Vázquez Báez, whom they hired to participate in the murder of Anthony Castro-Carrillo in Carolina, Puerto Rico, in exchange for cash.
According to the indictment, Vázquez Báez and members of the ONU burst into Castro-Carrillo’s residence dressed as police officers and shot and killed him.
Around 2007, Vázquez Báez handed over an informant that he was in his own custody to members of the ONU who posed as other police officers and murdered him.
In addition to the 30-year prison sentence, Judge Furman sentenced Vázquez Báez, 53, to three years of supervised release.
Vázquez Báez had a prolific career in the Uniformed. In addition to working in the Carolina Drug and Narcotics Division from September 1996 to May 2005, he was then assigned to the Carolina Norte, Trujillo Alto Norte and Calle Loíza departments.
From June 2007 to September 2011 he went to Headquarters. Three years later, he was sent to the Auxiliary Superintendence of Strategic Operations. It was 2014. He was even assigned to the Surveillance Division of the General Headquarters.
The case was brought to justice in New York thanks to the investigative work of the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New York City Police Department. New York City.
The United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Police Department also participated, who supported the investigation.
