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Five suspected narcotraffickers from the Dominican Republic are en route to the Miami Federal Detention Center for allegedly smuggling cocaine across the Caribbean.
In a strange twist, their arrest seems connected to $4 million — nearly 500 pounds — of yayo discovered on Tuesday inside a house belonging to well-known Puerto Rican boxer Ivan Calderon.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet responded to Riptide‘s questions and most of the documents remain sealed in the case.
But it appears as if the drug bust was linked to a nearly year-long investigation into alleged Dominican drug runners Carlos Ruben Morales-Davila, Miguel Angel Espinal-Herrera, Freddy Antonio Martinez, Roberto A. Mendoza-Manzana, and Felix Evangelista Sanchez-Espinal.
An indictment against the five men was sealed until Davila was caught on Monday entering Puerto Rico on a fishing boat from Vieques.
The next day, Puerto Rican and American agents raided a house belonging to boxer Calderon, who only recently won a comeback fight after nearly retiring with a career record of 35-2-1.
On Wednesday, Calderon denied knowing anything about the massive amount of cocaine, claiming that the house was one of a number of his investment properties on the island. He has not been charged.
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