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Crime & Courts

Puerto Rico Meat Processor and Four Employees Indicted on Clean Water Act Charges

Federal indictment alleges illegal discharges of slaughterhouse waste into waters leading to Tropical Beach in Naguabo.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 20, 2026, 9:34 a.m. ET
On August 12, 2026, a federal grand jury indictment was unsealed charging meat processing company Ganaderos Borges Inc. and four employees with conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act and four substantive counts of violating the Clean Water Act, according to official records from the U.S. Department of Justice (Release ). The case is at the initial charging stage, meaning the matter remains open, undecided, and unresolved before the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. According to the official indictment record, Ganaderos Borges Inc. operates a slaughterhouse and meat processing facility in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. From August 2018 through at least September 2025, company president César P. Borges-Arroyo and operator Neftalí Borges-Gómez allegedly directed employees Erison Delgado-Santos and Héctor Fulgencio-Cabrera to use a submersible pump and hose to discharge untreated wastewater, animal blood, tissue, feces, and cleaning products from a waste retention lagoon into an adjacent creek flowing approximately half a mile to the Caribbean Sea at Tropical Beach. Official records state that the company held a non-discharge wastewater permit that expired on July 31, 2019, and was never authorized to discharge waste on-site or into any body of water. Principal Deputy Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division stated in official remarks that authorities allege the plant and four employees conspired to pump animal waste into a creek flowing to a public beach. Acting U.S. Attorney Héctor Ramírez Carbó for the District of Puerto Rico alleged that the company intentionally discharged untreated wastes into the sea at Tropical Beach to evade disposal costs, emphasizing that prosecutors are pursuing felony charges. Assistant Administrator Jeffrey A. Hall of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance added that the defendants allegedly disregarded prohibitions on discharges, sending slaughterhouse waste toward coastal areas. The defendants are scheduled for initial appearances before Magistrate Judge Héctor Ramos Vega. If convicted, the individual defendants face a statutory maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine per charge, while Ganaderos Borges Inc. faces fines of up to $500,000 per count.

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  1. Version 120 Aug 2026, 13:34current

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