GUAYNABO —The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed two new arrest warrants, including the mayor of Guaynabo, Ángel Pérez, this morning, authorities confirmed.
Felix Delgado-Montalvo, 40, pleaded guilty last to engaging in a bribery scheme in which he received cash payments in exchange for awarding Puerto Rico municipal contracts to an unnamed company.
The FBI spokeswoman in Puerto Rico, Limary Cruz Rubio, confirmed the arrests and announced that there will be a press conference at 11:00 a.m. today with more details.
“The FBI confirms that this morning two arrest warrants were executed, one of which is against the mayor of Guaynabo, Ángel Pérez,” Cruz Rubio said.
The newspaper called Pérez’s press officer, Betsy Rivera, and the secretary of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Carmelo Ríos, several times, but the calls were not answered.
Pérez, who took the municipal seat of Guaynabo after the resignation of Héctor O’neill, is also the president of the Federation of Mayors, which groups together all members of the PNP.
While, the second arrested was Radamés Benítez, who works as a special assistant to the mayor of Trujillo Alto, José Luis Cruz Cruz.
“It takes me by surprise, a lot of pain, I have no words. I just ran into this …. hard. Difficult, “said the mayor in a radio interview (WKAQ 580AM).Federal agents in the Los Altos del Escorial urbanization, in Carolina. (Alex Figueroa Cancel)
El Nuevo Dia learned that the operation is related to the documents that were unsealed yesterday on the guilty agreement for corruption of the contractors Oscar Santamaría and Raymond Rodríguez.
Santamaría was president of Waste Collection, while Villegas-Vargas and Rodríguez were owners of JR Asphalt Inc .. Both companies are involved in a scheme of government corruption, bribes and kickbacks (or illegal commissions) that had as a fundamental piece the former mayor of Cataño Félix “el cano” Delgado Montalvo.
Both the former official and the contractors pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Sources of El Nuevo Dia indicated that the objective of the federal prosecutor’s office in this case was not only against Delgado Montalvo, but against five other mayors and former mayors who allegedly received bribes or agreed to the granting of illegal contracts with the Waste Collection company.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-pr/pr/district-court-judge-orders-unsealing-documents