Federal and local lawmakers in Puerto Rico, as well as civil rights and advocacy organizations, have called for investigations after ProPublica reported how a federal probe into a drugs-for-votes scheme in Puerto Rico prisons got quashed after the 2024 elections.
The territory’s representative in Congress, Pablo José Hernández Rivera, called on members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to join him in a push for a congressional probe into the matter.
“The report published today by ProPublica details facts that no elected official — whether in Puerto Rico or in Washington — can ignore,” he said in a statement in Spanish.
The same day, Rep. Héctor Ferrer Santiago, a Popular Democratic Party member, introduced a resolution in the territory’s House ordering its Committee on Public Security to investigate, calling the allegations “serious!” and saying the House has “an inescapable duty to investigate.”
Their requests came the day ProPublica published its investigation detailing how prosecutors had uncovered a drugs-for-votes scheme being run by a violent gang in Puerto Rican prisons and were deep into looking at whether now-Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón or her campaign were involved. In the days following President Donald Trump’s election in 2024, as prosecutors prepared the indictment, they were told by supervisors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico to exclude the voting-related charges against inmates and prison staff, four sources with knowledge of the investigation told ProPublica. Then, once Trump took office, they were told to abandon the probe into potential political ties entirely, the sources said.
González-Colón, a longtime Republican and member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, has declined repeated requests for interviews by ProPublica. In a statement Tuesday, she denied any wrongdoing and said she “has stood firmly against corruption” throughout her career and political campaigns.
“I categorically reject any attempt to link me to unlawful conduct,” she wrote. González-Colón has not been charged with any crime.
She told local news outlets Wednesday she doesn’t think any investigation into the matter is warranted. “There is nothing here,” she said in Spanish. “And, if they have research from the past four years, let them do it, let them bring it to a successful conclusion. But I have absolutely nothing to do with the things that are pointed out there, much less my campaign.”
On Wednesday, leaders of the Puerto Rican Independence Party also called for an investigation. Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago, vice president of the party, said on social media that the questions of partisan intervention in prison spaces should not be ignored considering their “severe implications.”
Thomas Rivera Schatz, president of the Puerto Rico Senate and a member of González-Colón’s party, initially told local news outlets that government officials in Puerto Rico should investigate thoroughly. But at a press conference on Thursday, he backed away from that assertion, saying of ProPublica’s report: “I do not lend it any credibility whatsoever. … It appears to follow a specific editorial line — one directed against the Republican Party and against Trump.”
An indictment filed in December 2024, while Joe Biden was still president, charged 34 members of a gang, known as Group 31 or Los Tiburones, and associates with crimes including drug distribution resulting in at least four overdose deaths, money laundering and possessing a firearm. Prosecutors also alleged that the gang made connections with government officials “for the purpose of reducing prison sentences” and that the gang mandated both the prisoners’ political affiliations and “who to vote for in primary and general elections,” but included no charges related to the drugs-for-votes scheme.
Sources familiar with the investigation said gang leaders forced inmates to vote for González-Colón or face brutal beatings and being cut off from a supply of drugs. Many of the inmates are addicted to illicit drugs. Prosecutors said they had evidence that González-Colón had spoken with one of the prison gang leaders on WhatsApp during the primary campaign and were pursuing other potential ties when they were instructed not to look any further, people with knowledge of the investigation told ProPublica.
González-Colón said in her statement that she engaged with all sectors of society during her campaign. “That included meeting with families of incarcerated individuals concerned about rehabilitation and reintegration, because public policy must be inclusive and responsive to every community,” she said. She did not address the allegation that she had talked with a gang leader directly.
W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, who was appointed by Trump in 2019 and has served continuously since, told ProPublica that his office does not comment on open cases. While a couple of defendants in the drug and money laundering cases have taken plea agreements, most of the cases are still pending.
“Given the ongoing nature of the case and the importance of maintaining the integrity of active matters, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further in a press setting,” Lymarie Llovet-Ayala, spokesperson for the office, said in an email Wednesday. Previously, she said that charging corrupt public officials “has always been and remains a top priority” of the office.
As Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in Congress — a role similar to a U.S. representative — Hernández Rivera has the power to introduce and co-sponsor legislation and vote in committee, but is prohibited from voting on final passage of laws in the House.
Hernández Rivera, a Democrat and member of the Popular Democratic Party, said he already has support from at least a couple of members from the House Judiciary Committee who are interested in starting the oversight process and are working on a draft letter requesting an investigation.
Political parties in Puerto Rico don’t adhere to a straight divide among Democrats and Republicans. Instead, they center much of their focus on whether Puerto Rico should become a state and so have Republicans and Democrats within each.
Hernández Rivera said the fact that the New Progressive Party has a stronghold on inmate votes is suspicious. “About the prisons in particular, it raises eyebrows from a statistical standpoint, the fact that 83% of inmates vote for the candidate of that party when no other place in Puerto Rico votes by those margins,” he said, citing a ProPublica tally of voter returns from the State Elections Commission’s website. By comparison, González-Colón won 41% of the overall vote in her victory in the five-way general election contest.
“The issue here is more about whether the processes were followed and whether there was corruption in giving up the case,” Hernández Rivera said.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told ProPublica that while he didn’t yet know the details of the matter, he would support an investigation. He said the allegations aren’t surprising given the suspicions of election fraud across the U.S. and considering “today’s morals.”
“I hope our committee or another committee does some investigating,” he said.
Annette Martínez-Orabona, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Puerto Rico, said abandoning an investigation into a fraudulent voting scheme in prisons undermines the trust of those who believe in democracy.
The ACLU is “advocating for full transparency about what happened with this investigation … what evidence was collected, and what was done with that evidence,” Martínez Orabona said in a written statement.
The Power 4 Puerto Rico Coalition, a diaspora organization that advocates for more independence for the territory, said it wants answers from González-Colón and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Power 4 Puerto Rico calls for Congressional hearings to fully review what happened, who knew, and why the voting-related investigation did not proceed,” Erica González Martínez, director of the group, wrote in a statement. “The Puerto Rican people deserve the truth.”
