MIAMI – A Dominican official was arrested upon landing from the Dominican Republic at Miami International Airport and will face charges of international drug trafficking, U.S. authorities say.
Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz, 58, of Santiago, Dominican Republic, was arrested by federal law enforcement officers on Monday, according to the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida.
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He is an elected member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic.
Based on the indictment returned by a Miami federal grand jury last week, Gutierrez Diaz is accused of being part of a transnational drug ring that operated in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and the United States from about 2014 to 2017.
The federal indictment charges Gutierrez Diaz and others with three counts: conspiring to distribute cocaine, knowing that it would be imported into the United States; conspiring to import cocaine into the United States; and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.
If convicted, Gutierrez Diaz faces up to life imprisonment.
Gutierrez Diaz is scheduled to make his initial federal court appearance 2 p.m. Tuesday before United States Magistrate Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes in Miami.