By Walter Pacheco
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — Puerto Rico’s top police officer visited Orlando law-enforcement agencies Wednesday in an effort to keep criminals from eluding arrest by traveling between the island and Central Florida.
Currently, the lack of online court records, computerized criminal background data and other digital intelligence on the island limit the ability of local law-enforcement officials to gather information on criminals from Puerto Rico.
Superintendent Pedro Toledo of the Puerto Rican Police Department, Orlando police Chief Val Demings and Cmdr. Paul Zambouros of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation vowed to improve the way the three agencies exchange criminal information.
“Many law-abiding Puerto Ricans come to Central Florida searching for a better quality of life, but we have many others bringing crime to both places,” Toledo said. “We simply cannot allow that to continue.”
This is Toledo’s second visit to Central Florida seeking to improve relationships with local police. He met with Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary in 2007.
Demings plans a fact-finding mission to San Juan to learn how island officials gather and share information on criminal cases.
‘Gateway’ for criminals
“Orlando International Airport is a gateway that allows criminals to exchange guns and drugs between Puerto Rico and Orlando,” Demings said. “The Puerto Rican community in Orlando is growing, and despite differences in culture, we all share the same challenges.”
The latest census figures show that more than 200,000 Puerto Ricans live in Central Florida.
In the last decade, the U.S. Marshals Service arrested about 2,000 Puerto Rican fugitives. Almost 500 of those criminals had ties to Central Florida, records show.
Criminals from Puerto Rico looking to hide from Central Florida law-enforcement officers easily can travel to the island and disappear. Those hoping to elude arrest in Puerto Rico can hop on a plane and hide in Central Florida.
Local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies and others have access to a criminal data network known as the Fusion Center, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Although Puerto Rican police officials have access to the network, they cannot share their information with others on the mainland because of a lack of resources.
Only felonies available
So far, only felony arrest histories in Puerto Rico are available through the federal National Crime Information Center, the criminal database used widely by police agencies. But there is no readily accessible method for determining whether someone is a fugitive.
“They have a wealth of information in Puerto Rico on their bad guys, but we don’t have access to it,” Zambouros said. “Sharing that information would benefit us in solving the growing number of cases involving Puerto Rican criminals or crimes between here and Puerto Rico.”
In 2007, federal Transportation Security Administration officials started tightening checks on airport workers after two Comair workers were arrested and accused of smuggling 14 guns and 8 pounds of marijuana aboard a San Juan-bound Delta flight.
Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernández organized the meetings between police and Toledo. Fernández said she agrees that gun trafficking is a problem, but she also wants to curb gang activity in her east Orange County district, which is heavily Puerto Rican.
Gang data could be shared
Last year, deputies in Fernández’s district arrested a 25-year-old man from Puerto Rico on drug-related charges and possession of a handgun. He was linked to Ñeta, a notorious prison-based gang in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico officials keep extensive records on all documented Ñeta gang members that they can share with police agencies in Central Florida.
“Gang crime is an issue that is very close to my heart. It affects all of my constituents — Puerto Ricans, other Hispanics, whites and blacks,” Fernández said.
“This is why I’m proposing that we keep our lines of communication open and improve our exchange of information to jointly solve these problems affecting Central Florida and Puerto Rico.”
Copyright 2008 Orlando Sentinel