San Diego
Jorge Roca Suarez, a reputed Bolivian drug lord, pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in San Diego to an 18-count drug-trafficking indictment.
Roca, 38, faces a variety of charges, including conspiracy and involvement in a “continuing criminal enterprise.†If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Roca, who is being held without bail, was arrested Dec. 13 at his plush, 19-room home in San Marino, a Los Angeles suburb. He also faces a 12-count tax evasion indictment in federal court in Los Angeles, but that trial will follow the San Diego case.
At Friday’s brief hearing in San Diego, U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam allowed Roca to remain at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center rather than await the first trial at San Diego’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. Roca’s defense attorney, Michael Abzug, is from Los Angeles.
The next hearing in the San Diego case, a status conference, is set for Feb. 22 before Gilliam.
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