Gang bust may solve 2006 killing of policeman
The busts came as authorities fanned out early Friday morning armed with nearly five dozen arrest warrants for alleged members of the gang that operated at the Jardines de Campo Rico, Torres de Berwind and Monte Hatillo public housing projects along the 65th Infantry Avenue corridor.
Four of the suspects were picked up in New York or Florida, but alleged ringleader Marcelino Salazar López and his wife Sybil Villegas García remained at large.
Some suspects were thought to be hiding out in the Dominican Republic and were being sought in the neighboring country, authorities said.
Federal authorities also alleged that the gang extorted a private construction company doing remodeling work at the Jardines de Campo Rico complex, ordering company officials under threat of violence to add four gang members as ghost employees.
Police Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha said the group is believed to be linked to multiple murders, including the Dec. 7, 2006 slaying of officer Juan José Burgos Vélez, who was shot dead in broad daylight after reporting for duty at the Monte Hatillo public housing project.
“With the information federal authorities have provided, there is enough evidence to clear at least 10 murders,” said Figueroa Sancha, indicating that homicide cases would be processed in the local courts.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Luis Fraticelli characterized the organizations as “very violent.”
The suspects face federal charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to possess firearms in connection with drug trafficking. Authorities said the operation generated up to $10 million in illegal proceeds between 2006 and 2008.
Ten of the 58 indicted suspects also face federal extortion charges for allegedly ordering North Constructors Group to add four ghost employees to its payroll and funnel the bogus salaries to the gang. In exchange, the gang pledged that no harm would come to the company’s employees and the firm could continue its work at Jardines de Campo Rico.
The extortion scheme ran from May 2006 through December 2008 and gleaned about $118,000 in paychecks for the ghost employees, federal authorities said.
Among those implicated in the extortion scheme as a liaison between the drug gang and the company was a woman identified as Maritza Jiménez, president of the Jardines de Campo Rico Residents Association.
The biggest dividend from the bust may be the apparent break in the unsolved killing of Burgos Vélez, 36. The 14-year veteran of the Police Department left behind a wife and three children.
No one had been arrested in the slaying of Burgos Vélez, even though the Police Department and the FBI offered a reward of $40,000 for information. Police have said they think he was caught in the crossfire of rival drug gangs
Shortly after the killing, then-Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo went public with his frustrations over the lack of progress in the probe, imploring any potential witnesses to come forward with information about the fatal shooting, which occurred at around 4 p.m. at the crowded Monte Hatillo complex.
A female police officer responding to the scene of Burgos Vélez’s shooting was involved in a traffic accident en route and had to have one of her legs amputated.
