A congressman from the Dominican Republic was arrested at Miami International Airport on cocaine trafficking charges, authorities said.
Federal law enforcement officers arrested 58-year-old Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz at the airport Monday night after he arrived on a flight from the Dominican Republic, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Gutierrez Diaz, an elected member of his country's Chamber of Deputies, was a part of a transnational drug ring that operated in the Dominican Republic, United States and Colombia from about 2014 to 2017, authorities said.
The federal indictment charges Gutierrez Diaz and others with three counts: conspiring to distribute cocaine, knowing that it would be imported into the United States; conspiring to import cocaine into the United States; and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine.
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Gutierrez Diaz was expected to make his first appearance in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
