Dominican official charged with drug trafficking in Florida

MIAMI (AP) — A Dominican congressman has been arrested in South Florida on drug trafficking charges, authorities said.

Miguel Andres Gutierrez Diaz, 58, was arrested Monday night following an international flight from the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment in March charging him and others with conspiring to distribute cocaine in the U.S., conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted, Gutierrez Diaz faces a possible life sentence.

Gutierrez Diaz is an elected member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic, which is the lower chamber of the nation’s Congress.

According to the indictment, Gutierrez Diaz was part of a transnational drug ring that operated in the Dominican Republic, Colombia and the U.S.

Gutierrez Diaz made his first appearance Tuesday afternoon in Miami federal court. Online court records didn’t say whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charges.