Former DR politician found ‘incompetent’ to stand trial on cocaine smuggling charges in Miami
A federal judge has found a former politician from the Dominican Republic “incompetent” to stand trial in Miami on cocaine trafficking charges because of mental health problems and has ordered his transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility with medical services.
Former Dominican congressman Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz, who was placed on a “suicide watch” at least twice while in custody at a Miami federal lockup, underwent an evaluation at the request of his defense lawyer to determine his mental capacity. A forensic psychologist recommended to the judge that Gutierrez Diaz be found “incompetent” and sent to a federal medical center for “competency restoration.”
“The judge’s decision puts the case on hold for now,” the defendant’s attorney, Dennis Urbano, told the Miami Herald Wednesday. He pointed out that his client won’t explore a plea deal or opt for a trial until “it’s determined that he’s competent” to understand the nature of the charges against him and how to proceed with his defense.
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 three other defendants were facing a grand jury indictment. Since his arrest, he backed out of three court hearings where he had been expected to change his plea to guilty.
In late May of this year, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman concurred with the Bureau of Prisons psychologist’s findings on Gutierrez Diaz’s unstable status, concluding that the “preponderance of the evidence” shows the defendant “is presently suffering from a mental disease or defect that renders him incompetent to proceed.”
In his ruling, Altman said Gutierrez Diaz, who is still in custody at the Miami federal lock-up, must be placed in a bureau medical facility for four months to determine whether he regains his competence. The judge said he will await word from prison officials on the defendant’s status before holding another hearing on whether he is “competent to proceed” with the his narcotics conspiracy case.
Three of the four defendants in the 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 during the previous decade. The cocaine was hidden in produce boxes on commercial ships and on yachts owned by the former Dominican politician, Miami federal prosecutors say.
The ex-politician’s brother, Miguel Emilio Gutierrez Diaz, who turned himself in, began cooperating immediately and pleaded guilty to the main distribution-conspiracy charge in November 2021. Gutierrez Diaz, represented by defense attorney Frank Rubio, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
Endy de Jesus Nunez Marmol and his brother, Danny Nunez Marmol, also surrendered early on in the case and pleaded guilty to the distribution-conspiracy charge. Their defense attorneys, Jose Quinon and Frank Quintero, say the brothers faced a minimum-mandatory sentence of 10 years, according to their plea agreements. Altman, the judge, sentenced the brothers to 12-1/2 years.
Without the benefit of plea deals, the main distribution-conspiracy charge carried up to life in prison.
The indictment accused 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, 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. Prosecutors agreed with his motion, and the judge recommended the evaluation.
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.
