{"id":8,"date":"2026-05-21T11:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=8"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:39:11","slug":"prosecutors-had-a-drugs-for-votes-scheme-locked-up-under-trump-they-were-told-not-to-pursue-charges-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors Had a Drugs-for-Votes Scheme \u201cLocked Up.\u201d Under Trump, They Were Told Not to Pursue Charges."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

To the narcotics agents investigating drug smuggling in Puerto Rico prisons, it seemed at first like a typical scheme: associates of an inmate gang sneaking drugs into the prison, gang members distributing them inside and bank records showing the money flowing.<\/p>\n

Read more Prosecutors Had a Drugs-for-Votes Scheme \u201cLocked Up.\u201d Under Trump, They Were Told Not to Pursue Charges.<\/a><\/p>\n

Then the agents discovered something unusual.<\/p>\n

Leaders of the prison gang known as Los Tiburones, or the Sharks, were selling drugs to inmates not only for money, but for their votes. Specifically, votes for now-Gov. Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n, a longtime Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump, investigators found.<\/p>\n

To make sure the inmates \u2014 many of whom were addicted \u2014 complied, the gang\u2019s leaders threatened violence and to withhold drugs, the investigators learned. Corrections employees in on the plan looked the other way as the gang, formally known as Group 31, ran the enterprise.<\/p>\n

What at first seemed like a routine drug case had turned into something bigger. Puerto Rico, along with just a couple of U.S. states, allows inmates to vote. Puerto Ricans living in the territory can vote in all contests except federal general elections. It is a felony to willfully offer money or gifts in exchange for support at the polls. A conviction carries fines of as much as $250,000 and imprisonment of up to two years.<\/p>\n

Investigators had gathered solid evidence of election fraud implicating both inmates and staff, and they were working toward determining whether Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n or her campaign was involved, four people with knowledge of the case told ProPublica. They requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

But as federal prosecutors prepared an indictment against the inmates and staff in November 2024 \u2014 just days after Trump won the election and Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n clinched the governorship \u2014 they received a surprising directive. Their bosses in the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Puerto Rico instructed them to exclude the voting-related counts against the inmates and all charges against the prison staff, an investigation by ProPublica found.<\/p>\n

In December, they filed an indictment charging 34 inmates and associates with crimes including drug distribution resulting in at least four overdose deaths, money laundering and possessing a firearm. And while prosecutors described the drugs-for-votes scheme in the court filing, they did not include a single charge related to it.<\/p>\n

Soon after Trump took office, the lead prosecutor, Jorge Matos, was told by a supervisor to take the investigation no further, according to four people familiar with the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the election, it was definitely full steam ahead,\u201d said one person familiar with the case. \u201cAfter the election, that all changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matos, who left the Justice Department in June 2025, did not respond to phone calls or texts from ProPublica or attempts to reach him on social media.<\/p>\n

For those working on the case, the decision to scrap the investigation was especially puzzling given the new president\u2019s agenda; Trump issued executive orders in early 2025 aimed at eradicating drug traffickers and declaring election integrity \u201cfundamental\u201d to maintaining American democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe invested so much effort to make a difference,\u201d said another person. \u201cWe\u2019re frustrated, but there\u2019s nothing we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

People close to the case wondered if politics had played a bigger role than law and order. Trump congratulated Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n in a letter shared at her January 2025 inauguration saying, \u201cI am so proud of your resounding victory.\u201d That same month, she pushed to erect a statue of him at the Capitol building in San Juan alongside other presidents who\u2019ve visited the island. \u201cHe deserves that,\u201d she said, according to an official post from the Federal Affairs Administration of Puerto Rico on X.<\/p>\n

W. Stephen Muldrow, the U.S. attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, was appointed by Trump in 2019 and has served continuously since then. His name appears on the indictment along with those of three assistant U.S. attorneys. Muldrow told ProPublica his office does not comment on open investigations other than in press releases or press conferences. While a couple of the inmates have accepted plea deals, most of the drug and money-laundering cases against the inmates and associates are still making their way through the court system.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up email, a spokesperson for the office noted the indictment was filed during the Biden administration and under the previous governor of Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

Charging corrupt public officials \u201chas always been and remains a top priority\u201d of the office, wrote spokesperson Lymarie Llovet-Ayala.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen sufficient admissible evidence exists to charge persons involved in public corruption, as required by the Justice Manual, the Puerto Rico U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office will aggressively pursue such charges,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

In court documents tied to a different case, in October 2025, a magistrate judge mentioned \u201can unrelated white-collar investigation involving the Governor of Puerto Rico.\u201d Muldrow\u2019s office responded in a filing, stating, \u201cThere is no white-collar investigation (or any other investigation) of Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n has not been charged with a crime. The governor declined ProPublica\u2019s repeated requests for an interview and did not respond to written questions sent to her communications team.<\/p>\n

Muldrow had a friendly working relationship with former Attorney General Pam Bondi when she was the state attorney general in Florida and he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the middle district of that state, according to people who know him.<\/p>\n

A Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email, \u201cNeither Attorney General Bondi nor Acting Attorney General Blanche was involved in any charging or investigative decision in this Biden administration prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s office noted in a statement that the indictment mentioned allegations of voting coercion, and said: \u201cThis office did not limit the underlying investigation in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May 2025, in a move that federal prosecutors and political observers alike said was highly unusual, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seized the voting machines from Puerto Rico over concerns about \u201cvulnerabilities,\u201d according to testimony in March by Director Tulsi Gabbard to Congress.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the office told ProPublica the seizure was at the request of the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Puerto Rico and was \u201cnot about any election in particular.\u201d The goal was to \u201cassess risk to this critical infrastructure, given similar infrastructure is used throughout the United States,\u201d the spokesperson said in an email.<\/p>\n

Muldrow didn\u2019t answer questions from ProPublica about the matter.<\/p>\n

Lydia Lizarribar, an attorney for Juan Carlos Ortiz-Vazquez, a Group 31 member who prosecutors named as one of the leaders of the drug operation, declined to comment on the case.<\/p>\n

A Party \u201cStronghold\u201d<\/h3>\n

The Puerto Rican prison system has a long and well-documented history of overcrowding, inadequate medical care and other human rights violations so egregious that in the late 1970s they prompted federal oversight that continued for decades.<\/p>\n

The grim conditions spurred inmates to form advocacy groups like Group 31, which was officially created as a nonprofit to lobby corrections officials and lawmakers to improve inmates\u2019 quality of life. Over time, federal prosecutors say, several of these groups operating in the prisons evolved into violent criminal organizations such as Los Tiburones and \u00d1etas, with memberships in the thousands.<\/p>\n

The poor conditions were also the backdrop for a push in 1980 by the New Progressive Party governor at the time, Carlos Romero Barcel\u00f3, to codify voting rights for prisoners.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Inmates have been aligned with the party ever since, political analysts said. Political parties in Puerto Rico differ dramatically from those on the mainland. They don\u2019t adhere to a straight divide among Democrats and Republicans. Instead, the two main parties center much of their focus on whether Puerto Rico should become a state and so have Republicans and Democrats within each.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unheard of for politicians of all parties to court the inmate vote, but the New Progressive Party has made it a \u201cstronghold,\u201d said Fernando Tormos-Aponte, a political scientist with expertise on Puerto Rico and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a huge advantage for them particularly as elections in Puerto Rico have been decided by small margins,\u201d Tormos-Aponte said of the New Progressive Party. In the 2024 general election for governor, the party won 83% of the inmate vote, according to a ProPublica tally of voter returns on the State Elections Commission\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Inmate votes were especially key in the 2024 gubernatorial primary as Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n, a longtime New Progressive Party member, was challenging the incumbent governor of the same party.<\/p>\n

She won the primary by fewer than 30,000 votes, according to the State Elections Commission. Local news reports said that an estimated 5,000 prisoners voted territorywide.<\/p>\n

Read more Hello world!<\/a><\/p>\n

In her first months in office, Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n signed a law allowing people with criminal records to obtain professional licenses in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

In July, she signed off on a law expanding inmates\u2019 ability to hold jobs in the private sector, calling it \u201cpart of a vision of social justice,\u201d adding \u201cwe believe in the second chance, in the value of work and in the capacity for transformation of the human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n signed a law requiring the parole review board increase the pace at which parole denials are reconsidered. She said in a press release the law is aimed at a \u201cfairer, more transparent system focused on rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political analysts said rumors have swirled over the decades about coercive tactics being used to mobilize the prison vote, raising significant questions about the extent to which that support comes in exchange for favors from the ruling party.<\/p>\n

This time was different, sources said. They had evidence. Prosecutors had \u201clocked up\u201d the voting-for-drugs scheme among the gang, inmates and staff, and were deep into investigating a potential political connection when Muldrow\u2019s office pulled the plug.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the type of questions you would think an administration that has publicly declared this war on drug trafficking would investigate further,\u201d Tormos-Aponte said of the Trump administration. \u201cYou would think it would be a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the people familiar with the prison election fraud investigation, it was clear politics were at play in the decision to abandon charges prosecutors were confident they could win. What wasn\u2019t clear, they said, was who was pulling the strings and how. It was \u201clike you\u2019re watching a puppet show but you can\u2019t see the strings,\u201d one person said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what you\u2019re seeing isn\u2019t telling the whole story,\u201d the person said. \u201cThere was some kind of invisible hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Drugs for Votes<\/h3>\n

Although they excluded drugs-for-votes charges, prosecutors didn\u2019t scrub the Dec. 12, 2024, indictment of how they believed the operation worked.<\/p>\n

Outside associates of Los Tiburones, the indictment alleged, primarily used drones to drop drugs on prison grounds. Then staff participating in the scheme helped in the \u201cintroduction and distribution\u201d of the drugs inside the prison or acted as lookouts. The employees also allowed the gang members to enforce their own discipline system against those who didn\u2019t do as they asked, including when voting. Punishments included withholding food from inmates or forcing them to sit with their arms folded while they were beaten and kicked. In four cases, the drugs led to overdose deaths, the indictment says.<\/p>\n

The indictment also alleged that Los Tiburones made connections with government officials \u201cfor the purpose of reducing prison sentences,\u201d and the gang mandated both the prisoners\u2019 political affiliations and \u201cwho to vote for in primary and general elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

A relative of one of the prisoners told ProPublica that inmates had to show their ballots to gang leaders when they voted to avoid punishment.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico\u2019s Civil Rights Commission, which for decades has sent observers to polls across the territory, reported \u201cserious difficulties\u201d in gaining access to several prisons during the 2024 general election. After being denied entry at multiple locations, the commission successfully sought a court order, but much of the day had already passed by the time the observers were allowed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly condemn the lack of diligence and indifference shown by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in hindering the functions of this Commission on the day of early voting in correctional institutions,\u201d the agency later wrote in a special report on the 2024 elections.<\/p>\n

The report said observers witnessed prisoners voting in cramped quarters that didn\u2019t allow for privacy and having to hand their ballots to others to put in the box.<\/p>\n

Ever Padilla-Ruiz, the commission\u2019s executive director, told ProPublica that inmates sent written complaints to the office detailing their experiences of being pressured to vote in the primary \u2014 some for Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n and others for her opponent, Pedro Pierluisi. They did not mention any gangs by name, Padilla-Ruiz said.<\/p>\n

He said inmates reported that inmate group leaders were \u201calways sending messages\u201d up until election day, adding that they were too afraid to say much more.<\/p>\n

Several people familiar with the case said investigators had evidence that Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n had spoken to a Group 31 member, but they had not determined whether she was involved in vote buying.<\/p>\n

One of the imprisoned gang leaders had bragged on Facebook about his connection to Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n, posting a picture of him talking with her on WhatsApp while the primary campaign for governor was underway, two sources said.<\/p>\n

She clearly benefited from the scheme, they said. \u201cThere was no doubt about that,\u201d one said, noting that thousands of votes were likely at stake.<\/p>\n

The indictment notes that gang members were provided preferential treatment such as relaxed visitation policies and the use of Sony PlayStations, big screen TVs and cellphones, but investigators had not connected the privileges to Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n or her campaign.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cLatinos Are Winning\u201d<\/h3>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n has been a longtime advocate for Puerto Rico statehood and has been engaged in Republican politics for more than 20 years. She was elected chair of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico in 2015 and two years later became resident commissioner, a role similar to a U.S. representative but with limited voting power in Congress.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been an active participant in Latinos for Trump, praising the president over the years as \u201cwise\u201d and in 2019 saying on social media, \u201cLatinos are winning under his leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she continues to lobby for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n has also leaned in to her relationships with other members of Trump\u2019s Cabinet, posting well wishes on social media to Susie Wiles, Trump\u2019s chief of staff, and congratulating Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security director Trump picked to replace Kristi Noem, calling him \u201cmy good friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he will provide strong leadership as he works with President Donald J. Trump to strengthen our nation\u2019s security,\u201d she wrote in a March Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Experts on Puerto Rican finance and politics say the relationship between Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n and the Trump administration is symbiotic though lopsided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see it more as a situation of unrequited love,\u201d said Alvin Velazquez, an associate law professor at Indiana University\u2019s Maurer School of Law and an expert on Puerto Rico\u2019s bankruptcy in 2017.<\/p>\n

The territorial island, whose residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, receives less federal funding than most states. Political leaders in Puerto Rico, Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n included, have perpetually lobbied for more support.<\/p>\n

Republicans in turn have capitalized on Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n\u2019s rise as she helped bolster GOP support among the Puerto Rican diaspora and other Latino voters on the mainland. Now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio endorsed Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n in her 2024 gubernatorial election.<\/p>\n

Polls specifically isolating Puerto Rican voters show that Trump saw at least a 4 percentage point uptick in votes from Puerto Ricans living in states compared to the 2020 election, garnering 45% of the group\u2019s vote in the 2024 election, according to the nonprofit research center Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University.<\/p>\n

And perhaps most importantly, experts say, Trump has counted on Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n to support his strategic geopolitical initiatives in the region, including the controversial reopening of long-abandoned naval bases in Puerto Rico. Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n welcomed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the island in September and thanked Trump on X for \u201crecognizing the strategic value Puerto Rico has to the national security of the United States and the fight against drug cartels in our hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite the sentiment among many Puerto Ricans who were angered by Trump\u2019s response to Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a comedian at one of Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign rallies who called Puerto Rico a \u201cfloating island of garbage.\u201d And while Trump has said that Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n was \u201cwonderful to deal with and a great representative of the people,\u201d he later called Puerto Rico \u201cone of the most corrupt places on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the 2024 election, federal prosecutors were “full steam ahead” looking into how a prison gang in Puerto Rico gave drugs to inmates if they voted for a GOP gubernatorial candidate. After Trump\u2019s election, the investigation evaporated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-criminal-justice","tag-politics","tag-prison"],"yoast_head":"\nProsecutors Had a Drugs-for-Votes Scheme \u201cLocked Up.\u201d Under Trump, They Were Told Not to Pursue Charges. - Moving Services America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingservicesamerica.com\/?p=8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prosecutors Had a Drugs-for-Votes Scheme \u201cLocked Up.\u201d Under Trump, They Were Told Not to Pursue Charges. - Moving Services America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Before the 2024 election, federal prosecutors were "full steam ahead" looking into how a prison gang in Puerto Rico gave drugs to inmates if they voted for a GOP gubernatorial candidate. 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