Opinion ID: 1453555
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Indictment and Extradition

Text: On September 29, 1998, Juan Cuevas was indicted, along with nine other defendants, for conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine from about 1995 through the date of the indictment, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), and 846. The superseding indictment, filed on April 15, 1999, added two more counts. Count two charged Cuevas and four others with conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(h), 1956(a)(1)(A)(i), 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), and 1957(a). Count three charged that Cuevas and two others had participated in a money laundering transaction on or about March 19, 1998, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1)(B)(i) and (2). Several of the defendants named in the indictment were arrested in the spring and summer of 1998. Cuevas, who was living in the Dominican Republic, managed to avoid apprehension at that time. In July 1999, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York contacted the Office of International Affairs in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to initiate the process of requesting Cuevas's extradition. The Office of International Affairs, in turn, contacted the United States Department of State (State Department), which instructed the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo to communicate the request. On August 13, 1999, the U.S. Embassy sent Diplomatic Note No. 116 to the Government of the Dominican Republic, requesting that Cuevas be provisionally arrested in anticipation of extradition to the United States. By Diplomatic Note No. 165, dated November 19, 1999, the U.S. Embassy transmitted to the Government of the Dominican Republic the formal documentation in support of the request for Cuevas's extradition. The extradition request was made pursuant to the Convention for the Mutual Extradition of Fugitives from Justice, U.S.-Dom. Rep., June 19, 1909, 36 Stat. 2468, a bilateral treaty between the United States and the Dominican Republic, and pursuant to the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, art. 6, Dec. 20, 1988, S. Treaty Doc. No. 101-4, 28 I.L.M. 493 (1989) (U.N.Convention), a multilateral treaty to which the United States and the Dominican Republic are both signatories. See Cuevas, 402 F.Supp.2d at 505-06. By Diplomatic Note DEI-99-1349, dated November 29, 1999, the Government of the Dominican Republic acknowledged receipt of the extradition request. After some delay, on July 6, 2002, the Dominican Republic transferred custody over Cuevas to the United States, and Cuevas was subsequently transported to New York. In late July, two weeks after Cuevas's return, the United States received a copy of a decree, signed by the President of the Dominican Republic, authorizing Cuevas's extradition. Id. at 506. The decree, dated July 2, 2002, stated in pertinent part: [I]t is understood that the above-named [defendant] [is] covered by the provisions of Article 4, Paragraph II of Law number 489, dated October 22, 1969, as amended by Law number 278-98 on July 29, 1998. Dom. Rep. Extradition Decree 495-02, July 2, 2002. The referenced provision of the Dominican Republic's Law No. 489 reads: In extradition treaties signed by the Dominican State with other States, when the extradition of a national is granted, no penalty greater than the maximum established in this country, which at the moment this law enters into force is thirty years, shall be imposed. Dom. Rep. Law No. 489 on Extradition, art. 4, para. II (1969), as amended by Dom. Rep. Law No. 278-98 (1998).