Drug dealers sent kilos of cocaine to Milwaukee from Puerto Rico using the post office, federal authorities say

Federal agents and local police moved to arrest 26 people in Milwaukee and elsewhere early Wednesday as part of a sprawling investigation into pounds of cocaine being sent from Puerto Rico to Milwaukee.

The drug dealers resorted to a simple means of transport: They mailed the drugs through the U.S. Postal Service, according to a 227-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday morning.

The complaint details dozens of drug shipments coming into various post offices in the Milwaukee area and the dealers sending thousands of dollars in cash back to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, also through the U.S. mail.

There is no indication of the total volume of cocaine that came into Milwaukee through the mail, but details in the complaint suggest hundreds of pounds of cocaine coming here and millions in cash proceeds being sent back to Puerto Rico.

Defendants began appearing at the federal courthouse in Milwaukee on Wednesday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan and were scheduled to keep coming all day.

The 26 defendants are charged with drug distribution, money laundering and conspiracy. They face the potential of life in prison if convicted.

Federal prosecutors were asking that the defendants be temporarily held without bail. Hearings on whether they will be detained without bail are scheduled for next week.

The first two defendants to appear before Callahan, Wilberto Santiago-Martinez and Julio Seda-Martinez, needed a translator to understand the proceedings in court. Neither man made a statement. Both will receive court-appointed attorneys.

According to the criminal complaint:

The investigation was opened in September 2018 by agents with the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area group, which investigates narcotics cases in the Milwaukee area.

The U.S. Postal Service had intercepted a parcel containing 3 kilograms, or more than 6 pounds, of cocaine from Puerto Rico.

The investigation revealed the Milwaukee-based organization also was receiving heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic drug stronger than heroin.

The organization was shipping the drugs to Milwaukee and other U.S. cities. An investigation into the scope of the organization continues.

The drugs arrived through post offices in the Milwaukee area and were delivered to various houses, mostly on Milwaukee's south side.

The defendants, several of whom are from Puerto Rico and have family there, would have the cocaine and other drugs "fronted" to them and then they would ship the money back to Puerto Rico.

In June, federal agents received permission to wiretap phones being used by the suspected dealers. They also got information from at least three informants who provided information about the drug-dealing organization in exchange for possible breaks in unrelated criminal cases they were facing.

The complaint reveals dozens of shipments of kilograms of cocaine coming into Milwaukee and cash being returned. At one point, defendant Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Collado asks Hector Yamil Rodriguez how much money he has to send to Puerto Rico.

"Man, there's a lot. All that cannot be put in one," Rodriguez said, saying he had about $30,000 and wondered if it would fit in a post office box.

There also were a number of times that the packages of cocaine went missing, though it is not clear if law enforcement intercepted them, if they were delivered to the wrong location or if there could have been another explanation.

"The mailmen are stealing it, (expletive)," defendant David Quinones-Rios says on a recorded call. "The (expletive) box arrived and it arrived somewhere else. There were two more in another box; that's $80,000 lost."

The suspects even tried to find missing packages of cocaine by calling the U.S. Postal Service's customer service number. In one call last October, Rodriguez is recorded talking to a USPS employee named "Aurelio."

"I'm having a problem with a package that was supposed to be here today," Rodriguez says and then gives Aurelio the tracking number.

She tells him it was accidentally delivered to Green Bay and that it will be delivered later to him.

Last August, the shipments of money back to Puerto Rico slowed as the suspects worried that Hurricane Dorian, which was bearing down on the island, could create more scrutiny.

"Don't mail anything until (the hurricane) goes through," says Carlos Omar Concepcion-Rivera, on the recorded call. "If the hurricane ruins us, we would have to wait."

Rodriguez added that parcels coming from the island might also get scrutiny during the storm. "Then they'd be like, 'Oh, let's check these boxes that are stuck here.'"

Most of the defendants were arrested simultaneously early Wednesday by a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement.

A news conference on the case is planned for 9 a.m. Thursday at the federal courthouse. U.S. Attorney Matt Krueger, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Paul Maxwell are expected to speak.

Contact John Diedrich at (414) 224-2408 or jdiedrich@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @john_diedrich, Instagram at @john_diedrich, LinkedIn or Facebook.