LAWFUEL- The Law News Wire – R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Robert Parker, Chief, Miami-Dade Police Department, Amos Rojas Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Julie Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, announced the May 30, 3007 convictions of defendants Paulino and Carlos Granda following their trial on drug trafficking, robbery, carjacking and firearms charges.
The Grandas, who are brothers, were arrested during an investigation conducted by Miami-Dade detectives as part of the Street Terror Offender Program, which focuses on proactively investigating violent career criminals who have demonstrated an intention to commit additional violent crimes. In January and February of 2007, Paulino Granda, a nine-time convicted felon, assembled a crew of seven men, including both of his brothers and a cousin, to commit an armed robbery of a tractor-trailer, parked at a Doral warehouse. Paulino Granda believed the trailer contained 70-80 kilograms of cocaine. Paulino enlisted his brother Carlos Granda to be a look-out during the robbery and to help him carry away the cocaine after other members of his robbery crew kidnapped or killed the tractor-trailer’s drivers.
During the arrest, which occurred shortly before midnight on February 22, 2007, a masked member of the crew raised his loaded firearm at police, beginning a shooting that left two defendants dead and two other defendants, including Paulino Granda, wounded. Police later recovered two loaded firearms, police paraphernalia, numerous flexcuffs and a pair of handcuffs in and around the vehicles used during the robbery.
Three of the defendants pleaded guilty before trial. Paulino and Carlos Granda went to trial on May 21-30, 2007. Paulino Granda was convicted on all eight counts against him and, because of his prior convictions, faces multiple mandatory life terms of imprisonment. Carlos Granda was convicted on six of the seven counts against him, and faces a mandatory-minimum 10-year term of imprisonment, up to life. Sentencing is scheduled before the Honorable Donald M. Middlebrooks on August 21, 2007.
Mr. Acosta commended the efforts of the Miami-Dade Police Department and the various other state and local law enforcement agencies involved in the case. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys James M. Koukios and Michael E. Gilfarb.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
