By Elisinio Castillo

Edison "La Pantera" Miranda, the once feared middleweight and super middleweight, is in negotiations to plead guilty to charges of drug trafficking that date back to December 2014.

According to El Nuevo Dia, during a hearing held earlier this week before federal judge Aida Delgado in Puerto Rico, attorney José Gaztambide indicated that they had been in communication with the prosecution to try to reach an agreement.

Gaztambide replaced Miranda's attorney, Richard O. Dansoh, who excused himself from the hearing because he was in Florida.

For his part, federal prosecutor Marc Chattah argued that the latest information he had was that Miranda wanted to go to trial, but that yesterday he had received an email from Dansoh stating that his client "now wants to negotiate."

For her part, Judge Delgado informed that all the parties have to resolve the plea bargaining negotiations before the hearing scheduled for February 6.

He warned that, if by that time they have not reached an agreement, they will definitely go to trial in March.

Miranda was one of 29 people accused by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to import and possess controlled substances and for money laundering, among other crimes, and one of four people who could not be located at dawn when ICE agents executed warrants of arrest in January 2015.

Soon after, Miranda surrendered and was released on bail.

But in December of 2017 Miranda was arrested by federal sheriffs in the state of Florida after he failed to comply with the conditions imposed by the court and was sent to the federal prison Butner Correctional Facility, which is a psychiatric institution of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. .

Miranda faces a charge of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, another charge of conspiracy to launder money and another charge of conspiracy to try to wash other monetary "instruments".

According to the indictment, Miranda was part of a drug trafficking organization led by Carlos Segura Galvis, alias "Torero".

The authorities accused the defendants, including Puerto Ricans and Colombians, of having generated about $5 million between 2010 and 2012 with narcotics sales.

All the other defendants have already pleaded guilty.