Court rules to keep two Figueroa Agosto case defendants in jail

SD. A National District court on Tuesday ruled to keep Sobeida Felix and Ricardo Ivanovich Smester incarcerated until the start of the criminal trial, on charges of laundering money for the ring of drug traffickers headed by the Puerto Rican kingpin Jose Figueroa Agosto.

First Collegiate Court Presiding judge Antonio Sanchez Mejía rejected a request by defense lawyers Felix Portes, Francisco Javier Azcona and Manuel Moquete, to revise the ruling which sent their clients to jail.

The judges ruled that the reasons on which the lower court based decision for incarceration haven’t varied.

The start of the criminal trial against Felix and Smester and six other defendants in the case is slated for February 7 in the same court.