A co-conspirator in a drug smuggling operation that resulted in the death of a woman at a Salem motel has reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors.
Yomaira Arias Cordero, 25, of Lawrence has agreed to plead guilty to smuggling drugs on a flight from Santo Domingo to Boston. Prosecutors have recommended that Cordero be sentenced to 46 months in prison.
Cordero was one of three woman to smuggle cocaine into the country on the flight in 2008. Cordero, along with twin sisters Mally and Nelly Cruz Rodriguez, boarded a flight on Nov. 25, 2008, with hundreds of grams of cocaine in their stomachs.
After landing in Boston, they were brought to the Park View Inn in Salem by three other conspirators — Angel Baez-Gil, of Lawrence, Escolastico Suero of Lawrence and Sandy Rodriguez Brito of Puerto Rico — and given laxatives. Cordero and Nelly Cruz Rodriguez began to pass the small plastic bags of cocaine in the early morning of Nov. 26, but Mally Rodriguez did not. She was given more laxatives and began to feel sick, and started foaming at the mouth.
Cordero and the three men left the motel for Baez-Gil's Lawrence apartment. Brito, believed to be the leader of the operation, gave Nelly Rodriguez $40 and a cell phone and then left with the sisters' luggage.
Nelly Rodriguez called 911 and her sister was taken to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, where she died of cocaine intoxication shortly after arriving. Forty-two plastic bags containing 404.4 grams of cocaine were found in her body.
Cordero reached an agreement to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine earlier this month. Her agreement with prosecutors includes a 46-month prison sentence, and four years of supervised release. She is to be sentenced in June.
Nelly Cruz Rodriguez struck a deal in July to serve 18 months in prison with supervised release for three years afterward.
She told prosecutors that Brito approached her at her San Juan home earlier in November 2008 and offered to pay her $5,000 to ingest the cocaine and smuggle it into the United States, according to recently released federal documents. Brito was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison in January. Suero was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, also in January.
Angel Baez-Gil received a 15-year sentence in federal prison on Dec. 30. Baez-Gil has since appealed the sentence, according to court documents.
Charges have been brought against Brito's sister, Dionaliz Rodriguez Brito, but court documents indicate she has not yet been arrested.
The case was investigated by the Salem Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra M. Walsh and Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Feith.
