By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - The Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 24 – Jeremias Jimenez-Cruz, once the Consul General for the Dominican Republic to Jamaica, was in detention in the US as a drug lord awaiting trial. On May 14, 2020 he sought released based on COVID-19, before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Kimba M. Wood. Inner City Press covered it.
Jiminez-Cruz' lawyer insisted, loudly and repeatedly, that there was no evidence against his client.
But Judge Wood cited video evidence, and the defendant's sizable incentive to flee.
He was a Dominican Republic diplomat - if he got back to DR, he would be sitting pretty.
The proceeding was ironic, in that UN bribery convict Francis Lorenzo, who as Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN of current UN Security Council member the Dominican Republic paid bribes to UN PGA John Ashe - is now back working for the Dominican Mission, and entering the UN.
But in this case, Judge Wood denied release.
On March 16, 2022, this: "the Dominican Republic’s former Consul General to Jamaica, JEREMIAS JIMENEZ CRUZ, was sentenced today to 179 months in prison for using his position and contacts in the government of the Dominican Republic to import cocaine into the United States. JIMENEZ CRUZ was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood. JIMENEZ CRUZ previously pled guilty to conspiring to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States."
In October 2022, his co-defendant Jessika Fuentes Sanchez was arrested, and via a CJA 23 Financial Affidavit that is not (yet?) public, was assigned a Criminal Justice Act lawyer; "Detention on consent without prejudice." Jiminez Cruz has a retained lawyer. We'll have more on this.
The case is US v. Jimenez-Cruz, 19-cr-326 (Wood).
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