Interpreter charged with cocaine trafficking
Interpreter charged with cocaine trafficking
A federal judge denies bail to Juan A. Giraldo, who has an office in the law firm run by the father and brother of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline.
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 22, 2004
BY W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- An interpreter and investigator for several prominent defense lawyers in Providence was arrested at Logan International Airport in Boston last week on cocaine-trafficking charges.
Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration stopped Juan A. Giraldo, 39, of East Greenwich, eight days ago as he, his girlfriend and two companions were about to board a flight for Colombia with more than $40,000 in their possession, the authorities said.
In recent years, Giraldo has worked for lawyers John F. "Jack" Cicilline and John M. Cicilline. They are the father and brother of Mayor David N. Cicilline.
The Cicillines said that Giraldo has an office in their law firm at 387 Atwells Ave., and he had previously worked with them in their offices on Dorrance Street and in Puerto Rico. They said that Giraldo also has provided services for lawyers Joseph A. Bevilacqua and Matthew B. Smith.
The Cicillines said Giraldo served as a Spanish interpreter and also did investigative work for them.
"This guy is a good guy," said John M. Cicilline, the mayor's brother. "He's a friend."
Cicilline also said that he had been helping Giraldo and others try to market an energy drink in South America, but he said they are not business partners.
"I'm hoping if they make it big they will remember me," he said.
On June 14, DEA agents got a signed arrest warrant for Giraldo in U.S. District Court, Providence, that charged him with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. The next day, June 15, Giraldo's sister, Clara Vasquez, 40, of Providence, was arrested at her home and charged with the same offenses.
If convicted, Giraldo and Vasquez face a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison.
According to an affidavit attached to the arrest warrant, DEA Special Agent James J. McCormack received information last November from an unnamed paid informant that Giraldo was "selling multikilogram quantities of cocaine."
From March 4 through March 25, the informant, under the supervision of the DEA, began an undercover drug investigation into the activities of Giraldo and Vasquez.
During the course of the probe, the affidavit says, the informant secretly recorded several phone conversations in which he arranged to buy a kilogram of cocaine from Giraldo for $23,000.
On March 14, the informant arranged a meeting to buy the cocaine.
The affidavit says that DEA agents set up surveillance outside Vasquez's home at 25 Lubec St., in Providence's Wanskuck section. The informant was in the house.
At 9 a.m., the agents saw Louis Giraldo, Juan's brother, enter the house. At 12:38 p.m., Juan Giraldo arrived, stayed for about five minutes and left, the affidavit says.
The informant later told the DEA agents that, during that time, the Giraldo brothers had agreed to sell him the kilogram of cocaine. At about 1:45 p.m., the informant left the house to buy food for Vasquez at a neighborhood market. DEA agents met him there.
The informant returned to the house, and the kilogram of cocaine was "sitting on the kitchen table," according to the affidavit.
"Vasquez later told [the informant] that after she sent [the informant] out to buy food, Louis Giraldo had gotten the kilogram and dropped it off in the kitchen," the affidavit says.
Louis Giraldo has not been charged in the case.
The informant left with the cocaine and turned it over to the DEA agents.
A few hours later, DEA agents gave him $24,500 to pay Juan Giraldo for the drugs. (The affidavit says the informant had negotiated a price of $23,000 and agreed to give Vasquez $1,500 for arranging the deal.)
He delivered the money to Vasquez, the affidavit says. Later, Juan Giraldo arrived at the house, went to the bedroom with Vasquez and emerged to tell the informant that he was satisfied all the money was there, the affidavit says.
LAST FRIDAY, Giraldo and Vasquez were escorted in handcuffs and prison uniforms into the federal courthouse in Providence for a lively hearing to determine whether they would be released on bail.
Jack Cicilline, Giraldo's lawyer, argued for his release, saying that Giraldo has permanent-residence status and had no previous arrests since arriving in this country from Colombia 17 years ago.
"This is a single incident that the government is alleging in this case," Cicilline said. "If he is involved at all, it's simply at arm's length."
John M. Cicilline also made a pitch for Vasquez's release. He noted that she has no prior criminal history and has lived in Rhode Island for almost 20 years.
Cicilline identified the DEA informant as Vasquez's former husband, whom he said she recently divorced.
William Weinreb, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston, countered that Giraldo and Vasquez were not novices in the drug trade. He argued that evidence gathered by the DEA shows that they had worked with large quantities of cocaine and money. He also accused Giraldo of engaging in "counter-surveillance efforts."
Weinreb also told the court that, on April 5, Vasquez and a companion were stopped at Miami International Airport with about $173,000 in cash. He said that Vasquez had about $105,000 hidden in her girdle, while the companion was carrying the rest of the money. During questioning, Weinreb said that Vasquez told agents that the money belonged to her brother, Juan Giraldo, and she was going to Colombia to buy a house.
Weinreb also told the court that a "drug dog" detected cocaine on the wrapping that sealed the money and that Juan Giraldo's fingerprint had been lifted from the wrapping.
Judge Magistrate Robert W. Lovegreen was troubled by the defense arguments that Giraldo and Vasquez were novices in the drug trade. He questioned how an interpreter could accumulate large amounts of cash and live in a pricey home in East Greenwich.
Records from the East Greenwich tax assessor's office show that, in January 2001, Giraldo paid $401,270 for a condominium at 25 Field Stone Drive.
Lovegreen, who reviewed DEA transcripts in his chamber, concluded that Giraldo was a "major player in the drug trade."
"These transcripts," Lovegreen said, "are, in my opinion, devastating." He ordered Giraldo and Vasquez held without bail.
After the hearing, John F. Cicilline was asked how Giraldo accounted for the large sums of cash and his lifestyle. He said that Giraldo worked hard as an interpreter and had plenty of success at the blackjack tables at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
"He was a pretty good gambler," Cicilline said. "He was pretty successful."
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