Drug lord faces life for Puerto Rico bar massacre
Alexis Candelario will be formally sentenced on June 21 after being found guilty on 30 charges.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Puerto Rico drug lord faces life in prison after being convicted for his role in a bar massacre which left nine people dead, the US Department of Justice said Monday.
Alexis Candelario-Santana, 41, will be formally sentenced on June 21 after being found guilty on nearly 30 separate charges stemming from a shooting at a bar in the coastal town of Toa Baja in October 2009.
Candelario-Santana and another gunman opened fire at La Tombola nightclub, killing nine people and an unborn child and wounding 19 others.
Evidence at trial said Candelario-Santana had opened fire after a dispute with a rival drugs trafficker. The victims included Candelario-Santana s godson and cousin, the Justice Department statement said.
Candelario-Santana had only been released from prison in February 2009 after spending seven years behind bars for drugs offenses.
A Justice Department statement said Candelario-Santana s organization had sold crack, cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
According to evidence introduced at trial, Candelario-Santana had between 1995 and 2001 personally killed or ordered others to kill 13 individuals viewed as being threats to his organization.
Puerto Rico, a Spanish-speaking Caribbean island of 3.7 million, has been a US possession since 1898 and residents are US citizens.
