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1 2 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Marine Diver Self-winding movement. Water-resistant to 300m. 18 ct rose gold case. Also available in stainless steel. U LY S S E - N A R D I N. C O M The San Juan Daily Star

2 GOOD MORNING The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with 3 September 30, 2015 News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edi on, along with a Weekend Edi on to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday. PR Officials Told to Provide Better Financial Data at Senate Hearing By EVA LLORENS VELEZ llorenseva4@gmail.com Orrin Hatch Local Mainland Business Interna onal Viewpoint Fashion Entertainment INDEX No cias en Español Legal No ces Sports Games Horoscope Cartoons U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said that he needed to see audited reports and better financial data that can help Congress make better determinations about the needs of Puerto Rico. I want to help you. We need to have good information Hatch (R-Utah) told island government officials and economists who testified at a hearing Tuesday on the fiscal challenges facing Puerto Rico. Government Development Bank (GDB) President Melba Acosta and Center for the New Economy Public Policy Director Sergio Marxuach had already turned over documents to the committee on the fiscal situation of Puerto Rico, but Hatch said he needed something more like a debt sustainability analysis. The senator expressed misgivings about some of the proposals put forward by government officials to help Puerto Rico, including parity in federal healthcare funds after cuts threatened to create a crisis in that sector, and allowing Puerto Rico to benefit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy. A bailout from Washington is not expected, and while some on Capitol Hill are pushing laws or reforms that could help Puerto Rico, their prospects are uncertain. While the government of Puerto Rico has taken some steps in recent years to address these matters, many more changes -- significant and fundamental changes -- needed to be made, Hatch told the committee. Democrats in the U.S. Senate in August introduced a bill proposing eliminating a cap on the amount of funding that the federal government provides to support Medicaid in U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. That bill was referred to the Finance Committee. Hatch said problems surrounding the island s healthcare were multi-dimensional and extremely complicated. It isn t as simple as deciding to give more health funds to Puerto Rico, because doing so would necessarily mean reduced funding for other priorities, increased taxes, or even more federal debt, Hatch said. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said the commonwealth s own tax policy has been less than helpful as well in dealing with the island s problems. By some estimates, Puerto Rico collects less than half of its sales tax, he said. It recently put in place a program to attract certain Americans and their firms by zeroing out local taxes on capital gains, with no requirement that they contribute to the economy. Under a local tax break known as Act 20, service providers who move to the commonwealth have their corporate tax rate drop from 30 percent to four percent. These strategies may appeal to some companies and attract some wealth, but there s not much evidence to suggest they re steering Puerto Rico s economy toward prosperity, Wyden said. Scaling back or eliminating overly generous or ineffective tax breaks should be on the table as part of any long-term financial recovery plan. In this debate, Wyden said, some people have made the argument that Puerto Rico s safety net programs are too generous and need to be rolled back. For example, there s a belief among some that Puerto Rico needs a lower minimum wage. But changing the law to cut people s pay makes hardly any sense when American citizens in Puerto Rico already make less than half as much on average as those in the mainland U.S., he said. In addition, lower wages and a tattered safety net will drive more young workers to the mainland, costing the island a vital engine of growth. Wyden noted further that [t]he Medicaid program in Puerto Rico is less generous than in the mainland U.S., and its capped funding system means that it continues to face harsh spending limits that undermine its ability to meet the health care needs of the lowest-income U.S. citizens. Continues on page 4

3 4 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The San Juan Daily Star From page 3 In addition, Puerto Rico is locked out of one of the most successful pieces of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which is the Part D Low-Income Subsidy, he said. The people this hurts already live with extremely limited means. GDB President Acosta provided an overview of the measures implemented by Puerto Rico to cut government expenditures, discussed the report made by economist Anne Krueger on the island s debt sustainability and talked about the five-year fiscal adjustment plan, which proposes numerous austerity measures, including a labor reform package that seeks to get the island exempted from the federal minimum wage. Despite the measures, she reiterated that the situation in Puerto Rico has passed the tipping point, and that Puerto Rico, in the face of an immediate liquidity crisis, has no access to the capital markets on sustainable terms and faces significant financing gaps over the next decade. Acosta said Puerto Rico has taken the important step of developing a clear roadmap to address these challenges, which requires the implementation of difficult and painful measures, including the creation of a control board to monitor spending and compliance with the fiscal and economic growth plan. Notwithstanding Puerto Rico s best efforts to adjust its debts in a consensual manner as contemplated and discussed above in the context of the Fiscal and Economic Growth Plan, the likelihood of success would be materially improved if Puerto Rico had a legal framework within which to do so, she said. The unavailability of any feasible legislative option to adjust debts has created an overall environment of uncertainty that makes it more difficult to address Puerto Rico s fiscal challenges and further threatens Puerto Rico s economic future. I would like to explain why this is so important for Puerto Rico, and how the lack of such a framework has already had significant adverse consequences in our ongoing restructuring efforts at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority [PREPA]. The GDB chief emphasized two of the primary benefits in granting the island a bankruptcy regime even if Puerto Rico opts not to use it. The first is the availability of interim or Debtor-in-Possession financing while negotiations with creditors ensue, which has the critical benefit of avoiding a liquidity crisis. Such financing is not available under current law, Acosta said. With no court empowered to approve and supervise such financing, the Commonwealth and its instrumentalities will continue to deplete much-needed resources until a consensual restructuring is consummated. Access to such interim financing would help ensure that the Commonwealth and its instrumentalities can continue to provide basic government services to its residents while debt adjustments are implemented and a resolution to the debt restructuring discussions is achieved. Second, in the event that efforts to reach a consensual agreement fail, there would be a stay against creditor suits that would help protect the residents of Puerto Rico and the island s economy from the legal morass that would ensue. Acosta cited PREPA only as one example of the difficulty of restructuring debts in the absence of a clear legal regime. And while PREPA is making progress toward a consensual restructuring, PREPA has been in negotiations for well over a year and a number of significant creditors continue to hold out, hoping to free ride on those creditors who have already agreed to the deal, she said. But for Puerto Rico, PREPA is only one of the nearly 17 Puerto Rico issuers that may need to adjust their debt as contemplated by the Fiscal and Economic Growth Plan. The absence of a legal regime to restructure the Commonwealth s liabilities in an orderly process may potentially doom the ability of the Commonwealth and its creditors to achieve a comprehensive debt restructuring that will allow Puerto Rico to jump-start its stagnant economy. Pierluisi, meanwhile, said that while he is the first to insist that the government of Puerto Rico must take steps to address the island s toxic brew of economic, fiscal and demographic problems, Congress is also to be blamed. That said, any notion that the territory alone got itself into this situation and the territory alone must extricate itself from this situation is totally false, Pierluisi said. The truth is that the federal government bears tremendous responsibility for the crisis in Puerto Rico, and so Congress and the president must be part of any solution. The root cause of Puerto Rico s crisis is our political status, a subject that is within the jurisdiction of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but a topic that I hope every U.S. senator comprehends and considers with care, because the Constitution vests Congress with nearly unlimited power over its territories. Because Puerto Rico is a territory, my constituents fight for this country in the armed forces but cannot vote for their president and commander-in-chief, are not represented in the Senate, and have a single non-voting delegate in the House, the resident commissioner said. In this position, I can introduce bills and vote on my committees, but I cannot vote on the House floor. Accordingly, Puerto Rico has limited capacity to use the political process to protect and promote its interests, which is the essence of our democratic system of government. Simply stated, Puerto Rico s status cannot be reconciled with the principles the United States strives to uphold at home and promotes abroad. Moreover, Pierluisi said, because Puerto Rico is a territory, Congress has a license to treat Puerto Rico worse than the states under federal spending and tax credit programs, and Congress often uses that license. This is not a partisan critique; both Republicans and Democrats, acting over the course of many years, are to blame. He urged legislation to eliminate or mitigate the program disparities within the Finance Committee s jurisdiction. I urge the Committee -- respectfully, but in the strongest possible terms -- to take action on these bills, he said. Congress cannot in good conscience criticize Puerto Rico without acknowledging the fact that Congress shares culpability for the territory s problems. Pierluisi urged the panel to pass the bill that will allow the island to get access to Chapter 9 and help in obtaining financing. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum, a conservative public policy group, opposed granting Puerto Rico access to Chapter 9 but supported exempting it from the minimum wage dispositions contending that minimum salaries in the island should be $4.50. He also called for a cut in taxes and the liberalization of the market. Marxuach urged Congress to allow the Chapter 9 bankruptcy bill to move forward and give residents the benefits of the wage credit program and others that can help boost the economy.

4 The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, September 30, UPR Gets $3.8 Million Grant for Brain Research By The STAR Staff The Institute of Neurobiology at the University of Puerto Rico s (UPR) Medical Sciences Campus was awarded a $3.8 million U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to conduct research on the rewards and decision mechanisms in the brain, according to an EFE report. The project s goal is to understand how the brain evaluates its environment and implements an action plan, Mark Miller, director of UPR s Neural Mechanisms of Reward and Decision Project, told EFE. A better understanding of the decision-making process could lead us to improve strategies to solve problems in a more effective and appropriate manner. The project is being funded by NSF s Partnership in Research and Education program, which recognizes that international alliances are essential to deal with critical problems in science and engineering, Miller said. The Neural Mechanisms of Reward and Decision Project will link researchers from the UPR, Oklahoma State University, Canada, Egypt, Italy, Turkey and Chile. The collaborative project is comprised of four interdisciplinary projects focused on the role that dopamine, a neurotransmitter present in a wide variety of animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates, plays in the brain s decision-making and reward mechanisms. This knowledge will also provide us with information about certain behavioral and developmental disorders that affect the decision-making process, Miller said.

5 6 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The San Juan Daily Star Despite Reforms, a Public Pension Crisis Looms Large in PR By MARIA MIRANDA SIERRA mirandasanjuanstar@gmail.com Even after the administration of Gov. Alejandro García Padilla implemented reforms, Puerto Rico s public pension system is expected to run out of cash by 2020, according to various sources included Moody s Investor s Services, Fitch Ratings, Milliman s and a recent report by Conway Mackenzie on the island s liquidity problem. According to Bloomberg, the focus on the island s $72 billion debt has tended to overlook the fact that the commonwealth retirement fund is on track to go broke in a mere five years, even after the García Padilla administration implemented tough reforms in all three pension systems for public workers. The Public Employees Retirement System, which was running an actuarial deficit of $25.5 billion as of June 30, 2011 and was expected to run out of net assets as soon as 2014, was completely reformed, the government said in September Government Development Bank President Melba Acosta, who was the commonwealth Treasury secretary at the time, said in a news release in September 2013 that Puerto Rico was following the example of Rhode Island, but in an ever broader, more comprehensive manner. Among the changes made: it moved all participants (including current employees) into a defined contribution plan, the employee retirement age and the employee contribution rate were increased, bonuses and other benefits from special laws were reduced for current retirees and eliminated for future retirees, with the savings being transferred into the system, Acosta said. In addition, annual government contributions of up to $140 million were injected into the plan. The reform tackled and solved the cash flow situation of the plan and is expected to eliminate the annual shortfall of approximately $900 million in annual pay as you go obligations. She noted that the Retirement System reform was a cash flow solution; it did not aim to fix the actuarial deficit, but rather to provide the System with the necessary assets to pay benefits as they come due without requiring additional assistance from the government. Detroit, for example, was never able to carry out such reform, and the finances of its pension plan are often cited as one of the primary causes for its bankruptcy filing. The city of Chicago has similarly not been able to pass meaningful pension reform either. Puerto Rico s pension system, which covers 119,975 employees, as of June 2014 had just 0.7 percent of the assets needed to pay all the benefits that had been promised, a level unheard of among U.S. states, according to Bloomberg. If the García Padilla administration does not tackle the issue yet again, the exhausted fund could jeopardize a fiscal recovery by imposing soaring bills on the cash-strapped government even if investors agree to reduce the island s debt, something the government is currently working on as officials try to renegotiate the island s debt. If the titanic problem is not dealt with, the retirement system will run out of money by 2020, leaving the government on the hook for more than $2 billion in benefit payments the next year alone, according to Moody s Investor s Service. That s equal to about one-fourth of this year s general-fund revenue, according to Bloomberg. In July 2014, Fitch Ratings issued the following statement regarding the island s public pension system. Puerto Rico s bonded debt levels and unfunded pension liabilities are very high relative to U.S. states, with a large amount of outstanding debt issued for deficit financing purposes, Fitch s said in a news release. Pension funding will remain exceptionally low even with the significant pension reform effort undertaken by the current administration, and the April 2014 Puerto Rico Supreme Court decision finding recent reforms of the teachers retirement system unconstitutional presented the administration with yet another challenge. The news release added that the commonwealth has stated in the past that without the reform, the teachers retirement system would confront an annual cash flow deficit beginning in fiscal 2020, and yet even with the reform it appears the efforts were not enough. Meanwhile, Conway Mackenzie s (CM) report on the island s liquidity problem notes that based on a meeting with members of the Employees Retirement System (ERS) management team on Feb. 11, the current annual cash flow deficit for the ERS is estimated to be approximately $800 million at current funding levels. This cash flow deficit is due to benefit payments, administrative benefits, and debt service exceeding member and employer contributions. Therefore, CM estimates a $400 million cash burn for the six-month period ending June 30, based on a pro-rated share of the estimated $800 million annual cash burn. FY 2016 estimated cash burn of $634 million, prior to additional uniform contributions, is less than estimated burn of $800 million in FY2015 partly due to the assumption of higher employer contribution in FY2016 per Law 116, the report states. It adds that additional uniform contributions per Act given the underfunding of the additional uniform contributions to date, have been increased from $120 million to $369 million according to Milliman s analysis dated Feb. 27. The additional amount of uniform contributions created in Act 32 is intended to maintain gross system assets of at least $1 billion. At present, ERS has not yet collected the commonwealth s GF Additional Uniform contribution for fiscal year 2014 and 2015, the report explains. The fiscal year 2014 contribution was reduced to zero ($0) through the Executive Order of June 27, The commonwealth Treasury Single Account (TSA) does not include the payment of the Additional Uniform Contribution in Fiscal Year The timeframe in which ERS will exhaust its assets depends on many factors. Meanwhile, Bloomberg interviewed Ted Hampton, a Moody s analyst in New York who said that as Puerto Rico shoulders that burden of paying for pension benefits outright, that s obviously going to cripple their budget. Last August, Puerto Rico defaulted on some bonds for the first time, and García Padilla has said that reducing its debt is crucial for the island s economic recovery so that part of the money used to pay bondholders can be invested in the island, hence the economic recovery can begin. On Sept. 9, the government unveiled a five-year fiscal plan to fix the island s finances, which included closing down more schools and reducing benefits to the poor (taking away welfare benefits). It also envisions making increased pension payments that have been delayed because the government hasn t had the money. We believe this plan addresses the system s needs and assures pensioners and participants that their benefits will be paid, Pedro Ortiz Cortes, the retirement system administrator, told Bloomberg in an . According to Bloomberg, current and prior administrations have implemented changes to improve the pension system, including closing it to new employees and offering them annuities instead. To give it cash to invest, the system sold $2.9 billion of bonds in 2008, just before the credit crisis caused stock prices to plummet. The system is now obligated to repay the securities, which have tumbled in value amid doubts about its ability to do so. But with fewer government workers on its payrolls, there are fewer paying into the retirement system. The island had 116,000 central government employees in May 2015, down 27 percent from seven years earlier, according to the report unveiled by the government and its advisers. While new employees haven t been eligible for traditional fixed-benefit pensions since 2000, the step didn t stop Puerto Rico s growing liabilities. The new employees, called System 2000 participants, will receive an annuity instead. Their contributions are being used by the pension system to meet its obligations. They re using these payments to shore up their existing defined-benefit plan, Moody s analyst Hampton told Bloomberg. Their defined-contribution plan isn t really taking hold. It s just creating new liabilities for the central government. Puerto Rico is facing more immediate concerns because it may be short of cash as soon as November and a government shutdown is a great cause for worry. If the government has to decide between making a big general-obligation payment in January or making sure they have enough for payroll or for pensioners in December, I think they re going to go with the pensioners or payroll, Sergio Marxuach, public policy director at the Center for a New Economy, a San Juan think tank, told Bloomberg. You re not going to send government workers home without money during Christmas time.

6 The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, September 30, 2015 La Asociacion de Detallistas de Gasolina de Puerto Rico TORNEO DE GOLF ADG 2015 THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF OUR SUCCESS TOURNAMENT WINNERS OF GOLF ADG 2015 PRIZES WINNERS 1st place gross 2nd place gross 3rd place gross 1st place net 2nd place net 3rd place net Closest to the pin Longest drive Anthony Morales / Raul Rivera Abdel K. Abuosba / Jean C. Rodríguez Orlando Batista / Fernando Batista Orlando González / H. Leduc Mickey Torres / Luis Rodríguez R. Rivera / J. Tartak Fernándo Batista Gabriel Colón Copa Asociación Total Petroleum de Detallistas de Gasolina de Puerto Rico ATTEND OUR ANNUAL CONVENTION Participate in our seminars on Saturday, October 3, 2015 HOW TO INCREASE TRAFFIC AT YOUR STATION? Speakers: Rafael Segarra y Juan C. Maldonado 12:00 pm Presented by: Puerto Rico Supplies SEEING THE BIG PICTURE IN A SMALL BOX Speaker: Javier Díaz 12:30 pm Presented by: M&M Mars COST OF SEMINARS Active Members FREE* Non Members $ p/p * If you want to update your membership, call ADG at (787) JIMMY THORDSEN, INC. SPORTS SPORT R S EVENTS Tienda de Conveniencia OPEN 24/7 PROMOTIONS 7

7 8 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The San Juan Daily Star Perelló Says Repeal of Pending B-to-B Tax Not an Option By EVA LLORENS VELEZ A group of so-called dissident Popular Democratic Party representatives has introduced a bill that would repeal the 4 percent businessto-business (B-to-B) tax that will go into effect Thursday. However, House Speaker Jaime Perelló said Tuesday that repealing the tax is not an option. We have a serious liquidity problem and one of income, he said. We are close to shutting down government. Reps. Manuel Natal Albelo, Luis Raúl Torres Cruz, Luis Vega Ramos, Ángel Matos García, Carlos Vargas Ferrer and Luisa Piti Gándara Menéndez introduced House Bill 2682 on Monday to repeal the tax on services between businesses. In recent days, some colleagues of the majority, such as Finance Committee Chairman Rafael Tatito Hernández, have validated concerns about the effects on the economy of the so-called B-to-B, which we warned about throughout the entire discussion on tax legislation, Torres said in a statement. With their current statements, they validate what we had Jaime Perelló Manuel Natal Albelo warned. With this bill, they now have an opportunity to mend the error they have now admitted. There is legislation pending in both chambers that would amend Law 72, or Tax Reform, to exempt certain professional services from the B2B tax, but not to repeal it. The group of lawmakers recalled that before the adoption of Act 72, which stipulated the 4 percent B- to-b via a letter sent to the governor on May 18, they presented an alternative proposal that did not tax services between businesses. The record is public and clear. The so-called B- to-b has been discussed since the presentation of the administration s first budget, then replaced by the Patente Nacional [gross receipts tax], and adopted by the chairman of the House Treasury Committee, Vega Ramos said in the statement. At that time, with an even higher rate than the one that would come into effect on Oct. 1, 2015, the House Treasury Committee chairman publicly defended the tax and said it would not have damaging effects for consumers. Vargas Ferrer recalled that when he announced his vote against tax reform, he had said, Public policy is to incentivize and promote the private sector. However, it is contradictory to try to boost it with higher tax burdens such as the tax on B-to-B services and other individual taxes that discourage private sector investment in our economy, which could potentially choke this sector even further. The group of representatives indicated that all their interventions during tax reform discussions have been to lower others tax proposals. Among them, they highlighted the exclusion of healthcare and private educational services, commercial rent, services procured by condominium boards and homeowners associations and, more recently, all legal services. Ex-Credit Union Worker Pleads Guilty in Embezzlement Case By MARIA MIRANDA SIERRA mirandasanjuanstar@gmail.com Tania Maldonado Suárez pled guilty Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marcos López to charges of embezzlement of credit union funds. U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez said that around Oct. 26, 2005, and on through May 2007, Maldonado Suárez, who at the time was working at the Solimar Federal Credit Union, an institution whose deposits were insured by the National Credit Union Administration Board, intended to defraud her employer for the sum of approximately $474,894. Maldonado Suárez was responsible for posting transactions in the Solimar Federal Credit Union s records. During her employment with Solimar Federal Credit Union, Maldonado Suárez, with the intent to defraud, did willfully misapply, embezzle, and purloin funds that belonged to Solimar Federal Credit Union, Rodríguez said. Specifically, Maldonado Suárez withdrew funds from Solimar Federal Credit Union accounts without authorization, failed to deposit checks into accounts, failed to post payments on accounts, and granted unauthorized loans on accounts in order to divert funds from these accounts to herself for her own pecuniary gain. The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service with the collaboration of the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), and prosecuted by U.S. Assistant Attorney Luke Cass. Maldonado Suárez faces a potential maximum sentence of up to 30 years of imprisonment. 15 Charged in Crackdown on Bayamón Drug Ring Meanwhile, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned a six-count indictment against 15 defendants charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and distribution of, controlled substances, Rodríguez also announced Tuesday. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), Bayamón Strike Force, are in charge of the investigation. The indictment alleges that beginning in 2009, the organization distributed heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine, marijuana, Oxycodone (commonly known as Percocet), and Alprazolam (commonly known as Xanax) within 1,000 feet of a real property comprising the Los Laureles public housing project and other areas nearby and within the municipality of Bayamón. According to the indictment, the 15 co-conspirators had many roles in order to further the goals of the conspiracy: one leader. five managers/drug owners, one drug processor, two runners, five sellers and one facilitator, along with enforcers and lookouts. Nine of the defendants are facing one count of possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes. Some of the defendants and their co-conspirators would evict residents from their apartments by force to use those apartments for other coconspirators, according to the indictment. The defendants would also conduct drug transactions in the presence of minors and would use and employ them to distribute narcotics at the drug distribution points. Assistant U.S. Attorney César Rivera-Giraud is in charge of the prosecution of the case. If convicted the defendants face a minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison.

8 The San Juan Daily Star Wednesday, September 30,

9 10 Wednesday, September 30, 2015 The San Juan Daily Star 10 Cops Indicted on Various Corruption Charges By MARIA MIRANDA SIERRA Ten Puerto Rico police officers were indicted Tuesday for their alleged participation in a criminal organization run out of the police department that used their affiliation with law enforcement to make money through robbery, extortion, manipulating court records and selling illegal narcotics. The action today dismantles a criminal network of officers who, we allege, used their badges and their guns not to uphold the law, but to break it, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez said at news conference at the federal building in San Juan announcing the indictment. The indictment portrays a classic criminal shakedown; but the people wielding the guns and stealing the drugs here weren t mob goodfellas or mafia soldiers -- these were police officers violating their oaths to enforce the law, making a mockery of the police s sacred responsibility to protect the public. Special Agent in Charge Carlos Cases of the FBI s San Juan Division added that [c]orruption is at the root of all evil. These police officers violated the trust of the people of Puerto Rico and not only dishonored the police department, but also their fellow officers, who are honest and hardworking, he said. The indictment, returned on Sept. 24 by a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico, includes 11 charges against the following police officers: Shylene López, Ángel Hernández, Xavier Jiménez, Alvin Montes, Ramón Muñiz, Guillermo Santos, Luis Flores, José Neris, Manuel Grego and David Centeno. The police agents are charged with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Other charges against certain defendants include extortion under color of official right, narcotics trafficking, civil rights violations and making false statements to federal agents. Cases said most of the agents arrested worked at some point in the San Juan Narcotics Division. This investigation began over a year ago and finishes today with these arrests, Cases said. Earlier in the morning, FBI Spokesman Carlos Osorio confirmed that federal authorities were conducting the operation. We are executing a number of arrests of state police officers on corruption charges, Osorio told the STAR in a telephone interview. Almost two weeks ago, Police Superintendent José Caldero confirmed that federal authorities were conducting an investigation of police officers linked to drug trafficking on the island, and that possible arrests could be forthcoming. The vast majority of the police are honest people, Rosa Emilia Rodríguez people committed to the people of Puerto Rico, and they are police officers by vocation, Caldero said earlier this month. Nevertheless, as in every organization, we have investigations that are developing, and there will be arrests for corruption cases. There is no doubt about that. News reports published earlier this month indicated that the FBI was investigating a number of police agents for allegedly collaborating in the trafficking of controlled substances while also protecting drug traffickers. Some agents have even been singled out for allegedly stealing the incomes of the drug points. The top cop said a small or a minimal group of corrupt agents was involved, and that the entire police force should not be stigmatized as being corrupt. At least four of the cops detained Tuesday morning worked in the San Juan Narcotics Division, but at the moment of their arrest they were placed under other divisions of the police force, Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) Narcotics Bureau Director José Juan García said. The arrests took place in various towns across the island, but mainly in the San Juan metropolitan area. Osorio confirmed that some of the arrests took place at police stations and one took place at a cop s home in the Caimito sector of San Juan. The alleged corrupt cops were then transferred to the federal courthouse in Hato Rey, where a federal judge read them the charges they face. They were then taken to the Guaynabo Metropolitan Detention Center. Meanwhile, García said some of the agents arrested were still working at the San Juan Narcotics Division, while others had been transferred to other towns. One female cop who used to work in the San Juan Narcotics Division and is now working at the Carolina Narcotics Division. She was detained at her home, García said prior to the news conference. A narcotics agent from the San Juan Division now working at the Ponce division was also arrested. When I was the head of the San Juan Division, I transferred him to Ponce. He said that as chief of the Narcotics Bureau, he and other top Police Department heads have been monitoring all of the information that we get on corruption inside the force and we refer it to different agencies. We are not going to ignore this. The person who is violating the law has to comply with the law. He or she will be arrested either by the police of by federal agents, García said. The [people] can rest assured that any agent who violates the law will be processed and handled heavily, and will have to answer for the acts committed. We are not going to tolerate violations of the law here. He added that corruption in any form or manner will not be tolerated at the PRPD and any agents who violate the law should know that they will be caught and arrested. If we don t arrest them, then the federal agencies that have the proof will, García noted. According to the indictment, the officers charged with RICO conspiracy were members of a criminal organization who sought to enrich themselves through a pattern of illegal conduct. They worked together to conduct traffic stops and enter homes or buildings used by people suspected of being engaged in criminal activity to steal money, property and narcotics. The officers planted evidence to make false arrests, and extorted narcotics and firearms from individuals in exchange for their release. The members of the enterprise gave false testimony, manipulated court records and failed to appear in court when required so that cases would be dismissed. The officers also sold and distributed wholesale quantities of narcotics. For example, in January 2012, defendants Hernández, Muñiz and Grego, in their capacity as police officers, released a federal fugitive from custody in exchange for firearms. In another example, the indictment alleges that in February 2013, defendants López and Montes, in their capacity as police officers, stole at least 500 grams of cocaine during the course of a police intervention, which Jiménez sold afterward. The indictment charges that the defendants frequently shared the proceeds they illegally obtained and that they used their power, authority and official positions as police officers to promote and protect their illegal activity. Among other things, the indictment charges that they used PRPD firearms, badges, patrol cars, tools, uniforms and other equipment to commit the crimes and concealed their illegal activity with fraudulently obtained court documents and falsified PRPD paperwork to make it appear that they were engaged in legitimate police work. The case is being investigated by the FBI s San Juan Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mariana Bauzá and Teresa Zapata of the District of Puerto Rico.

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