On June 29th 2011 while working as a Freelance photojournalist I had the opportunity to cover Puerto Rico Police Chief José Figueroa Sancha’s last drug raid just days before  he was forced out from the post by governor Luis Fortuño.

 

During that raid the main target for arrest was Jorge Gómez González, a well known community leader which the police believed to be the head of an important heroin trade organization.

 

The day began early before dawn at 3:00am when all the agencies that constituted the anti drug trafficking task force (local police and Federal Government Agencies) met at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Hato Rey prior to entering one of the most well known bastions of drug trafficking in San Juan, the slum type community of La Perla (The Pearl).

 

La Perla is located on the rocky shores outside the north wall of Old San Juan, the original colonial city built by the Spaniards in 1509. It was founded around 1959 by workers from a slaughterhouse that use to operate in the area. Now it’s a high intensity drug trafficking area which is estimated to generate around 20 million dollars in revenues per year.

 

At around 4:00 in the morning I was led to a police van and given a bullet proof vest. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the east wall entrance of La Perla, one of its only three entrances and went in working our way through the narrow streets of old buildings and junked cars. When the police motorcade stopped everyone jumped out, I immediately started to follow the police chief and his entourage through narrow passageways lined with ninja like agents armed with M-16 with flashlights and laser sights attached. I knew he was going straight to Gomez Gonzalez’s home.

 

Everything was quiet when we reached a two stories building, a late model SUV parked outside. I was ordered to stand still while a group of agents one sporting a gas powered circular saw went by me and up a flight of stairs. I heard the sound of the saw’s engine turning over and someone shouting “Policia” (Police) then the screeching shout and flight of sparks of metal being cut. It was all very fast. Suddenly someone gave me the ok to go up. The stairway was packed with agents. The cop with the saw was coming down the stairs with the sweaty face of someone carrying a heavy load while wearing a ton of clothing in tropical weather. When I reached the doorway there was a handcuffed man sitting on the floor in his underwear surrounded by agents. He was shouting something at Figeroa Sancha who was inside the house and shouting something back at him. I had time to shoot several frames before the police chief took off. The man on the floor was Gomez Gonzalez, broken glass on the floor, his family sitting on a couch witnessing the arrest.

 

Many more arrests were made that June morning, many lives shaken. Three days later La Perla residents were celebrating the Police Chief’s resignation. Many considered that the raid was Figueroa Sancha’s last resort to save his job which had been under fire by many segments of the Puerto Rican community.

Truth is being the Police Chief in Puerto Rico is no easy task, with an average of over a thousand murders every year, tons of drugs being dumped on the island on the way to the United Sates, police unions and political foes the job has a huge turnover rate and has become every governor’s headache to fill in.