César El Abusador pleads guilty to drug trafficking charges
César Emilio Peralta-Adamez, also known as “El Abusador,” has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.
On November 4th, 2022, Peralta pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to Count Two of the Indictments that charged:
From or about and between 2007 to June 2017, both dates being approximate and inclusive, from the countries of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, the Netherlands Antilles, César Emilio Peralta, the defendant herein, intentionally and knowingly combined, conspired, and agree with other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to import into the customs territory of the United States, from places outside the United States, five (5) kilograms or more of a mixture or substance that contains a detectable amount of cocaine, a Schedule II Controlled Substance. All in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 952, 960, and 963.
As part of the proceeding, Peralta also pleaded guilty to Count One of an Indictment derived from the Southern District of Florida (SDFL) which was transferred to the District of Puerto Rico for sentencing purposes. In SDFL, Peralta was charged with distribution of cocaine for the purpose of illegal importation.
Peralta faces a possible sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 5th, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. before Judge Pedro A. Delgado.
Peralta was the leader of a transnational criminal organization (TCO) based in the Dominican Republic. This TCO transported multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela to Puerto Rico and the continental United States.
“This conviction demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to disrupting and dismantling transnational criminal organizations,” said US Attorney Muldrow. “We will continue to maximize our multi-agency efforts to bring to justice those who break our laws and traffic drugs into Puerto Rico and the continental United States.”
The defendant agreed to seize four properties and a business in the Dominican Republic that were controlled by Peralta:
1. Flow Gallery Lounge in Santo Domingo;
2. Club La Koura in Santo Domingo;
3. Aqua Club, in Santo Domingo;
4, Al Panino, in Santo Domingo; Y
5. Peralta Investments, SA.
This prosecution is part of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a multi-agency approach. run by prosecutors and driven by intelligence.
The Attorney General designated Peralta as an OCDETF Consolidated Priority Organizational Target (CPOT) in 2017. The Attorney General’s (AG) Interagency CPOT list is comprised of leaders who exercise “command and control” over the most prolific elements of drug trafficking/ money laundering organizations that have the greatest impact on the illicit drug supply of the United States. The CPOT list represents the “Most Wanted” of the cartel leadership and ensures that all US government capabilities are focused, in a coordinated and clear manner, on an agreed set of high-level targets.
Since 2017, the Peralta Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) has been investigated by agents attached to the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCSF). The CCSF is a multi-agency OCDETF strike force comprised of federal and state law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Immigration and Customs (ICE), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). ), the US Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) and the US Marshals Service, with the collaboration of the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety, the Puerto Rico Police Bureau Rico, FURA, US Customs and Border Protection, US Border Patrol, and the IRS.
Peralta’s DTO was also investigated by the United States Department of the Treasury. On August 20, 2019, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified Peralta and his Drug Trafficking Organization as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Designation Act of Foreign Drug Kingpins (Kingpin Law).
Prosecutors in the case are Assistant US Attorney Max J. Pérez-Bouret, Chief of the Transnational Organized Crime Section, and Assistant US Attorney Jawayria Z. Auchter.
On November 28, 2018, a Federal Grand Jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment against Peralta, charging him with conspiracy to import heroin and cocaine into the customs territory of the United States (Counts One and Two) and with distributing five kilograms or more than cocaine for the purpose of illegal importation into the United States (Count Three). Peralta was later arrested in Colombia and extradited to Puerto Rico.