(11/15/20)
Since early 2020, Sean P. Murphy (’14), Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, has been working with the FBI on an investigation involving the importation of nearly 700 kg of cocaine directly from Venezuela. That investigation culminated on November 1, 2020, when an undercover FBI agent received 679.2 kg of cocaine—worth approximately $20 million—directly from two Venezuelan vessels during a high seas transfer. With assistance from Customs and Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard, both Venezuelan vessels were apprehended. All twenty-six Venezuelan nationals plus four Puerto Rican co-conspirators were arrested, and AUSA Murphy secured an indictment from a federal Grand Jury on allegations including Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled Substance On Board A Vessel Subject to the Jurisdiction of the United States and Conspiracy to Import a Controlled Substance into the United States.