SUSPECTED ECSTASY SMUGGLER ARRESTED BY DUTCH POLICE

FROM: U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE International Ecstasy Smuggler Suspect Arrested in the Netherlands, Extradited to Puerto Rico


San Juan, PR - The U.S. Marshals Service led Puerto Rico Violent Offenders Fugitive Task Force extradited Julio Rosario-Laccen on Saturday to Puerto Rico from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Rosario-Laccen was arrested by the Dutch Police pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant for allegedly conspiring with others to possess with the intent to distribute, thousands of high-grade pills containing a detectible amount of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as MDMA or Ecstasy.

After an extensive undercover operation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration multiple transactions were coordinated that included illicit Ecstasy narcotic sales to Puerto Rico. It is alleged this international Ecstasy operation was organized with a clandestine production laboratory that also supplied other buyers in adjacent European countries.

A U.S. Magistrate Judge in the district of Puerto Rico issued the official arrest warrant for Rosario-Laccen
after a federal grand jury issued a criminal indictment against him in June 2012. In conjunction with the Dutch and St. Maarten officials, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Marshals Service escorted Rosario-Laccen to Puerto Rico without incident.

Rosario-Laccen was transported to the Bureau of Prisons Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo
pending trial and further proceedings.

"This was a substantial capture of an alleged international narcotics smuggler. The cooperative and collaborative efforts of federal and international law enforcement agencies, facilitates the capture of international criminals that continue the attempt to spread the epidemic of illicit narcotics in our communities and internationally," said Orlando Rivera, U.S. Marshal for the District of Puerto Rico.