The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklynknown as “hell on earth,” is once again in the media spotlight after the entry of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, arrested last Saturday in Venezuela and later transferred to this federal prison.
The MDC houses some 1,239 inmates, men and women considered high dangerousnessaccording to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). It is one of the safest and strictest prisons in the United States, famous for its harsh prison conditions.
The main building has nine floors and, in the highest part, the Special Housing Unit (SHU), known as “the hole”, intended for especially dangerous prisoners. The cells, just five square meters in size, remain illuminated 24 hours a day, have individual cameras, a small window, desk, toilet and sink.
Inmates are only released three hours a week and are transported in handcuffs almost all the time.
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Dominicans in the MDC: a little-told chapter
Among the inmates who have passed through the M.D.C. There are dozens of Dominicans, detained for various federal crimes. One of the best-known names is that of the confessed Dominican drug trafficker Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillowhose stay in this prison marked one of the most notorious episodes in recent Dominican history linked to international drug trafficking.
Likewise, the center was the scene of a serious scandal that directly affected Dominican citizens. In recent years, the then vice consul and director of the legal department of the Dominican Consulate in New York, lawyer Tamayo Tejadareceived complaints from relatives of three Dominican women held at the MDC, who claimed to have been victims of sexual abuse by prison officers and were in the process of deportation.
Based on the Vienna Convention, specifically its article 3, section b, which establishes the obligation to protect the interests of nationals in the receiving State, Tejada achieved the freedom of the three Quisqueyanas, also avoiding their deportation. His work included reviewing the files of other Dominican inmates, preventing unjust convictions and achieving legal benefits for several fellow Dominicans in prisons in the tri-state area.
The accused officers were identified as Carlos Richard MartínezEugenio Pérez and Armando Moronta, who received sentences of several years in prison, one of them up to 25 years. The case was prosecuted by the Public Integrity Section of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Presidents, artists and big bosses
Brooklyn’s MDC has also hosted a long list of international figures:
Juan Orlando Hernandezformer president of Honduras.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Mexican drug trafficker.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambadaleader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico.
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes “The Viceroy”of the Juárez Cartel.
Rafael Caro Quintero, founder of the Guadalajara Cartel.
Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas “El Nini”, operator of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Sean “Diddy” CombsAmerican rapper, convicted of sexual crimes and organized crime.
Allison Mack actress linked to the NXIVM sect.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer.
Brooklyn MDC is not just a prison: It is a symbol of the American judicial power and a point of convergence where presidents, artists, drug traffickers and Dominican citizens have met, all under the same extreme conditions of confinement.
