MIAMI – A 43-year-old man from Puerto Rico escaped the Federal Correctional Institution near Miami-Dade County’s Country Walk neighborhood and ZooMiami, according to a flyer distributed on Saturday.
Jean Carlos Cruz escaped on Friday from a low-security FCI at 15801 SW 137 Ave., according to the Miami-Dade Police Department’s, Homeland Security Bureau flyer.
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An FCI Miami employee and a federal corrections officer verified the veracity of the flyer. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the facility for men houses 1,016 inmates, including 158 at a camp.
Federal court records show Cruz’s address in 2022 and 2023 was the Federal Prison Camp - Miami and his felony offense level after his 2002 conviction was for possession of “firearms while conducting a drug trafficking crime” for a 2001 case out of Puerto Rico.
In a letter to FCI Miami Warden Samantha Serrano, Cruz asked her to consider him for a compassionate release arguing that the mandatory minimum for a first-time nonviolent offender was excessive.
“I have served over 21 years in prison on that excessively long 35-year sentence,” Cruz wrote in 2022, according to the court filing.
In the letter, Cruz also accused the Federal Bureau of Prisons of delaying a “much-needed surgery” which he said resulted in scarring and accused medical staff of “deliberate indifference” over his respiratory problems.
Later that same year, FCI Miami inmate Robert Pressley, 43, died in a pool of blood in his cell after reporting respiratory problems, Forbes reported.
Cruz listed the homes of relatives in Orange County, Fla., and Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico, as possible places to live if released. U.S. District Judge Raul M. Arias-Marxuach denied his motion for compassionate release on April 14, 2023, records show.
Cruz was convicted of narcotics-sell, distribute, or dispense; two counts of violent crime/drugs/machine gun; and one count of selling defaced firearms in 2002, federal court records show.
A spokesperson for MDPD had yet to respond to a Local 10 News request for information.
In the MDPD flyer, detectives asked anyone with information about Cruz’s whereabouts to call Detective B. Benavides at 305-215-5691.
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