A man who was arrested for drug possession will be moved from the Department of Corrections into the custody of federal immigrations.
Leo Cruz Santiago was stopped by police one night in October 2014 while he was driving in Tamuning. His vehicle was missing a license plate. The officers saw a cylindrical object sticking out of his pocket, which appeared to have methamphetamine residue. He also had plastic baggies of “ice”, $930 in cash, a digital scale and other drug paraphernalia.
He pled guilty to two charges, according to his plea agreement:
- Possession of a Schedule 2 Controlled Substance as a third-degree felony relative to the indictment filed in CF 0252-12.
- Possession of a Schedule 2 Controlled Substance as a third-degree felony relative to the indictment filed in CF 0534-14.
He was sentenced in 2015 to three years for each charge with all but 966 days suspended with credit for time served. He was scheduled to be released in May 2017. A citizen of the Philippines, Santiago was identified by U.S. immigrations officials as having committed a deportable crime and was flagged with a federal detainer.
Santiago is the 17th criminal to be removed or deported via the Governor’s initiative to make Guam’s streets safer for residents. It costs an average of $119 a day or about $43,435 a year to house each inmate and detainee at the Department of Corrections. The federal government takes on these costs when custody is transferred.
Police have said drugs are a root cause for many burglaries, robberies and even family violence in our homes. Police Chief JI Cruz also has stated concerns that a drug epidemic is on the horizon for Guam and the region unless we take a strong stand against drugs.
“We saw this in the case where a young man killed a woman and he admitted he was on a drug high when this happened,” Governor Calvo stated. “We need to be aggressive in addressing this drug problem that is tearing our families and our community apart.