Alleged MS-13 affiliate charged with trafficking drugs from inside Mississippi jail

POLICE: Rivera Diaz worked alongside the gang's kingpin

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An alleged MS-13 associate has been arraigned on charges of conspiracy and operating as a major drug trafficker and brokering drug deals from inside a federal prison in Mississippi, according to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas and the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Special Agent in Charge, James Hunt.

According to the indictment, Daniel Rivera Diaz, also known as “JD Primo,” 34, from Yakima, Wash., while in prison in the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Miss., brokered at least two multi-kilogram heroin drug deals with the Mexican Mafia for the MS-13 kingpin, who is the gang’s highest-ranking member on the East Coast — Miguel Angel Corea Diaz, known on the street as “the Reaper.” Corea Diaz was extradited to Nassau County from Maryland in April.

Rivera Diaz used a cell phone he smuggled into the prison to broker the heroin drug deals. Corea Diaz and other alleged MS-13 members then trafficked the heroin on Long Island, in the Bronx, in Baltimore, Houston, Long Branch, N.J., and Jefferson County, Texas, according to Hunt.

Rivera Diaz was arraigned on Oct. 11 and charged with operating as a major trafficker (an A-I felony) and two counts of conspiracy in the second degree (a B felony). His bail was set at $300,000 bond or cash. If convicted of the top count, Rivera Diaz faces up to 25 years to life in prison. He is due back in court on Nov. 13.

Fifteen other alleged gang members have been charged and arraigned in the indictment, in addition to Rivera Diaz. Only one alleged MS-13 affiliate/gang member has not been arrested, according to Hunt.