Federal District Judge Silvia L. Carreño Coll on Friday granted a new extension in the federal drug-trafficking case against convict Jensen Medina Cardona and 23 other defendants, setting December 2, 2026 as the deadline to file motions to change their pleas or informational motions, and suspending the Speedy Trial Act clock until then. Prosecutors had requested at least 30 more days so defendants could receive and review documents held by the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, including inmate disciplinary files and custody location records; several defense attorneys also asked the agency directly for files.
The judge ruled that defendants’ need to review the evidence and negotiate possible plea agreements outweighs the interest of the parties and the community in a speedy trial. In all, federal authorities charged 34 people in 2024 in the alleged scheme to traffic controlled substances inside Puerto Rico prisons, tied to the prison organization known as Grupo 31 or Los Tiburones.
Substances named include fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, marijuana and synthetic marijuana, allegedly smuggled in via drones, mail and visits, with some packages thrown into prison yards or hidden in everyday items. Then-federal prosecutor William Stephen Muldrow said Grupo 31, formally created in 1998, kept control of significant distribution at institutions including Guerrero in Aguadilla, Las Cucharas in Ponce, Bayamón 501 and Guayama Máxima Seguridad 1000.
The federal charges are separate from the state case in which Medina Cardona was convicted in October 2021 of killing Arellys Mercado Ríos on August 18, 2019 in Villa Marina, Fajardo, over a dispute involving a cell phone, and sentenced in January 2022 to 129 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in January 2025.