Jailed Dominican politician has been on suicide watch awaiting trial in Miami cocaine case
Three of the four defendants in a prolific drug-smuggling operation between the Dominican Republic and South Florida have pleaded guilty to conspiring to import thousands of kilos of cocaine into the United States.
The cocaine was hidden in produce boxes on commercial ships and on yachts owned by a former Dominican politician, U.S. authorities say.
The one holdout in the high-profile case is the alleged ringleader: Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz, the ex-congressman in the Dominican Republic. He is being held at a Miami federal lockup and, after two stints on “suicide watch,” is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to determine his mental capacity to stand trial. He already backed out of three court hearings where he was expected to change his plea to guilty.
Gutierrez Diaz, a former member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic, was arrested in May of last year at Miami International Airport. The politician had come to Miami for a son’s graduation without knowing he and the other three defendants were facing a grand jury indictment.
His brother, Miguel Emilio Gutierrez Diaz, who turned himself in, began cooperating immediately and pleaded guilty to the distribution-conspiracy charge in November. Gutierrez Diaz, represented by defense attorney Frank Rubio, faces 15 years in prison but is expected to receive less time because of his assistance in the federal investigation.
Endy de Jesus Nunez Marmol and his brother, Danny Nunez Marmol, also surrendered early on in the case and pleaded guilty Tuesday to the distribution-conspiracy charge. Their defense attorneys, Jose Quinon and Frank Quintero, say the brothers face a minimum-mandatory sentence of 10 years, according to the brothers’ plea agreement.
Without the benefit of plea deals, the main distribution-conspiracy charge carries up to life in prison.
The indictment accuses the four defendants of conspiring to import thousands of kilos of cocaine that were destined for South Florida as well as New York. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Getchell said in court papers that while the Gutierrez Diaz brothers organized numerous cocaine shipments, the Nunez Marmol brothers were responsible for selling the drugs through a network of co-conspirators in the United States, including New York.
The foursome’s alleged smuggling operation was upended in 2017 when Drug Enforcement Administration seized 167 kilos of cocaine at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Getchell said in factual statements filed with the three defendants’ plea deals.
“In 2017, Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz organized a load of cocaine and acquired a company to receive containers of produce used to conceal shipments of cocaine from the Dominican Republic,” the statements said. “After conducting three test shipments without any cocaine, in September 2017, Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz directed [his brother] to package the cocaine and send the shipment to Duran Produce in South Florida.
“The [brother] concealed the cocaine within the cardboard box flaps of boxes of produce in the Dominican Republic and dispatched the load to the United States.”
That shipment, like others before it, was intended for the Nunez Marmol brothers, according to statements filed with their plea agreements.
Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz was scheduled to change his plea to guilty on three occasions in fall of last year, but he backed out each time. His defense attorney, Dennis Urbano, filed a motion in December asking U.S. District Judge Roy Altman to order a psychiatric evaluation of his client after asserting it was “needed to determine competency” to stand trial.
On Jan. 4, 2022, Urbano said he was notified that the Miami Federal Detention Center “placed” his client on “suicide watch.”
“This is the second time the defendant has been placed on suicide watch since December 2021,” Urbano said.
Altman granted Urbano’s request, and a status report on the psychiatric evaluation is expected in April.
According to Dominican news accounts, Gutierrez Diaz entered politics in 2018, the year after the alleged drug-trafficking conspiracy ended. Campaign videos available on Facebook indicate that Gutierrez Diaz was a member of the Dominican Republic’s Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which is described as a liberal/progressive party.
Gutierrez Diaz was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in the Dominican Republic’s bicameral legislature.
This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 7:30 AM.
