Alleged Drug Trafficker Indicted In Puerto Rico Apprehended In Rhode Island By U.S. Marshal Service, R.I. State Police

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Carlos A. Rodriguez, a/k/a Maldi, 32, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, was ordered detained on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond and returned to Puerto Rico, following his apprehension by the United States Marshal Service and Rhode Island State Police on an outstanding arrest warrant on drug trafficking charges from the District of Puerto Rico, announced United States Marshal Jamie A. Hainsworth, Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Colonel Steven G. O’Donnell and United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha.

Rodriguez is named in a sweeping 63-person, 11-count federal indictment returned in Puerto Rico in March 2014. The indictment, the result of an on-going 11-year investigation, alleges Rodriguez’s participation in a drug trafficking conspiracy to possess and distribute significant quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, Oxycodone and Xanax in the La Ceiba Public Housing Project and other areas in and around Ponce, Puerto Rico. An arrest warrant for Rodriguez was signed on March 6, 2014, by a U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

Members of the U.S. Marshal Service in Rhode Island and the Rhode Island State Police recently developed information that Rodriguez was living and working in Providence. Rodriguez was arrested on Tuesday morning without incident at his place of employment.

The Government was represented in U.S. District Court in Providence by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose.

###

To assist the media and the public, a glossary of federal judicial terms and procedures is available at http://www.justice.gov/usao/justice101/

Contact: 401-709-5357
USARI.Media@usdoj.gov