The twenty-one-year-old St. Croix man who was being heralded as a hero for saving the life of an injured WAPA line supervisor on Tuesday was behind bars Friday following his arrest by federal agents on drug trafficking charges.
Luis Daniel Ayala-Hernandez was being lauded in newspapers and on TV for climbing up a power pole to rescue Benjamin "Benjie" Mitchell, a V.I. Water and Power Authority lineman who was seriously injured when he brushed against an energized wire during restoration efforts in the wake of Hurricane Lenny. While Mitchell was helplessly hanging upside down above Estate Profit, Ayala-Hernandez rushed out of a nearby home, shinnied up the pole and supported the 28-year WAPA supervisor until help arrived.
Agents of the United States Customs Service arrested Ayala-Hernandez on Friday morning, minutes before he was to have been honored for his heroism.
Ayala-Hernandez was nabbed in connection with a November 13th incident where federal law enforcement agents intercepted him and a shipment of cocaine from St. Croix to Vieques. When agents at the Vieques airport began to inspect his carry on luggage, he ran away leaving six kilos of cocaine behind.
Ayala-Hernandez will be detained until a detention hearing is held on Monday at which time the Customs Service is expected to present probable
cause to justify the arrest and also ask the court to set a removal hearing, a process that will determine whether he will face the drug related charges on St. Croix or in Vieques.
Mitchell, a 28-year veteran with WAPA, is in stable condition at a Florida hospital where his family has joined him.
