CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The reputed leader of BVI’s drug cartel got 10 years hard time from a judge.
Ruben Reyes-Barel, 37, of the Dominican Republic, was sentenced to 120 months incarceration after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute while on board a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States., U.S. Attorney Delia L. Smith said.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert A. Molloy also ordered Reyes-Barel to serve five years of supervised release, and pay a $100 special assessment, U.S. Attorney Smith said.
According to court documents, on November 18, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air
and Marine Operations intercepted a vessel traveling from St. Thomas towards Puerto Rico at
approximately one mile southwest of Savana Island.
The vessel was operating without navigational lights, and individuals on board the vessel were observed throwing black objects overboard into the ocean.
Agents placed markers in the locations where the objects were discarded while they continued
to pursue the vessel.
Reyes-Barel, Jorge Romero-Amaro, Giovanni Graciani, Hector Rivera Concepcion and Pedro Luis Sayan Villanueva were found on board the vessel and seven duffle bags containing approximately 198 kilograms were recovered from the ocean.
Reyes-Barel was one of five men charged in the smuggling of the 433 pounds of cocaine in 2020.
He is the reputed leader of a massive drug trafficking cartel, and was fleeing arrest in the British Virgin Islands when he was captured on a boat near St. Thomas.
“The defendants here are members of a major drug trafficking organization that operates in the British Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic,” U.S. Attorney Smith said. “The leader of the organization, defendant Reyes-Barel, fled Tortola, British Virgin Islands, on or after November 6, 2020, after Royal Virgin Islands Police Force attempted to execute an arrest and search warrant on Reyes-Barel.”
This case was investigated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Homeland Security
Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Huston and Natasha Baker.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation.
OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers,
gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutorled, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.