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After Drugs and Guns Trial With 50 Year Term 2d Cir Remand Now Co-D Gets 200 Months

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 29 – Orlando Carmona Serrano was charged in a sealed indictment in a drug and guns conspiracy.  

   On May 20, 2021 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman held his proceeding. Inner City Press covered it.  

The defendant said he didn't have a copy of the indictment, then acknowledge that his lawyer had read it to him, in the Essex County Correctional Facility.

He pleaded not guilty, and it seems he will not be tried with his initial co-defendants.  

Judge Furman inquired into a victim of Count 2 and told the prosecution to be expeditious in tracking down, if they can, the victim.

On January 17, 2022 - Martin Luther King Day - the US Attorney's Office about another co-defendant in the case wrote to oppose Judge Furman signing an order which would allow the use of laptop computers to view 3500 material in the MDC "visiting room or such other location." The US Attorney's Office said the 3500 material, anywhere by the Visiting Room, could "raise significant safety concerns for Government witness."

In April 2022, jury conviction of Luis Blondet and JULIO MARQUEZ-ALEJANDRO, a/k/a "Chino" for racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, murder while engaged in a drug crime, and murder through the use of a firearm.  After less than a day of deliberations, the unanimous jury convicted MARQUEZ-ALEJANDRO and BLONDET of every count presented to the jury after a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman.

And on January 26, 2023: "JULIO MARQUEZ ALEJANDRO, a/k/a “Chino,” was sentenced to life in prison, and LUIS BLONDET was sentenced to 50 years in prison, each for their leading roles in a brutal drug cartel that is responsible for dozens of murders, the bribery of corrupt police officers in Puerto Rico, and the distribution of thousands of kilograms of cocaine in New York, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere."

Jump cut to February 18, 2024, when the US Attorney's Office wrote to Judge Furman to schedule a Curcio hearing on Marquez-Alejandro's 2d Circuit appeal being pursued by a lawyer who had briefly represented Blondet - and also represented a Witness-1 who was to have testified against Marquez-Alejandro (but did not). Outgoing counsel is free between March 18 and 27 but proposed incoming counsel say he is on trial for all of March in Puerto Rico.

On February 28 the US Attorney's Office wrote to say they see the conflict as waivable, and with a Curcio script.

On August 8, 2024 co-defendant Cruz-Fernandez was sentenced to time served plus two months, then five years of supervised release.

On August 29, co-defendant Pellot-Cardona was sentenced to 200 months.

The case is US v. Blondet, et al., 16-cr-387 (Furman)

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