By Canadian Press

David Ortiz shooting suspect charged with drug possession

Jun 22, 2019 | 10:34 AM

NEWARK, N.J. — The man in custody in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of shooting former baseball star David Ortiz was indicted Thursday on drugs and weapons charges unrelated to the shooting.

Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz was indicted in New Jersey on cocaine and heroin possession charges, a charge of conspiracy to distribute drugs and firearms possession, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark announced.

Ferreira-Cruz, 25, who was arrested last week, is among at least 11 people that have been arrested in 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.

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No attorney information is listed for the Reading, Pennsylvania, man.

In Reading, authorities are hunting for another suspect in the Ortiz shooting who’s also wanted for attempted homicide in the city in 2018.

According to a police affidavit, Luis Rivas-Clase — known in the Dominican Republic as “The Surgeon” — conspired with another man to shoot their victim in the back. He survived.

Court documents don’t list a defence attorney in the attempted homicide case.

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 Wednesday.

Officials said the attempted murder was ordered from the United States by Victor Hugo Gómez, an associate of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. They said Gómez had hired a gang of killers to eliminate his cousin, whom Gómez suspected of turning him in to Dominican drug investigators in 2011.

The cousin, Sixto David Fernández, was seated with Ortiz when a gunman approached and fired a single shot at Ortiz, the officials said.

The former Boston Red Sox star is in Boston recovering from surgery.

David Porter, The Associated Press