A man in custody in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of shooting former baseball star David Ortiz has been indicted on drugs and weapons charges unrelated to the incident.
Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz was indicted in New Jersey on Thursday on cocaine and heroin possession charges, a charge of conspiracy to distribute drugs and firearms possession, the US Attorney’s Office in Newark said.
Ferreira-Cruz, 25, who was arrested last week, is among at least 11 people to have been detained following the shooting so far.
Dominican authorities list his name as Rolfy Ferreyra. They say he has confessed to the shooting.
New Jersey prosecutors did not address the difference in spelling but said the man they were looking for was the suspected shooter.
Ferreira-Cruz also faces state charges in New Jersey in connection with two armed robberies in 2017.
In Reading, authorities are hunting for another suspect in the shooting who is also wanted for attempted homicide in the city in 2018.
According to police, Luis Rivas-Clase – known in the Dominican Republic as The Surgeon – conspired with another man to shoot their victim in the back. He survived.
Mr Ortiz, 43, was shot in the back at a bar in the Dominican Republic on June 9 by a gunman who mistook him for the real target, Dominican officials said on Wednesday.
Officials said the attempted murder was ordered from the United States by Victor Hugo Gomez, an associate of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel.
They said Gomez had hired a gang of killers to eliminate his cousin, whom Gomez suspected of turning him in to Dominican drug investigators in 2011.
The cousin, Sixto David Fernandez, was seated with Mr Ortiz when a gunman approached and fired a single shot at the former Boston Red Sox star, officials said.
Mr Ortiz is in Boston recovering from surgery.
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