SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A Puerto Rico lawyer has been arrested on allegations he collected funds meant to bribe a judge to overturn a life sentence for a drug dealer once dubbed the “Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean,” officials said yesterday.

Ramon Negron Colon, identified as the attorney for Jose Figueroa Agosto, was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. US Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said he had received at least US$590,000 in cash for the scheme, though there is no evidence that any bribe was actually offered to any official.

Also indicted was legal broker William Barreto Ortiz, who in addition is accused of lying to the FBI.

Both men were arrested Monday afternoon at their homes and were scheduled to appear in court yesterday afternoon. Barreto’s number was unlisted and Negron’s office number produced a fax signal yesterday.

Figueroa was convicted of murder in August 1995 and sentenced to 208 years in prison in Puerto Rico. But he escaped to the Dominican Republic in 1999 after forging his release papers, only to return to Puerto Rico a decade later.

He was arrested again in July 2010 after a high-speed chase and was accused of shipping Colombian cocaine to the US mainland through Puerto Rico.

Rodriguez said that more than a year before Figueroa’s return to Puerto Rico, Negron sought to obtain up to US$3 million to help nullify Figueroa’s conviction through bribes, and said he had received initial payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After Figueroa’s 2009 arrest in Puerto Rico, Negron told his client he would seek a new trial and said it would be granted if the presiding judge was offered a US$300,000 bribe, according to the indictment. Authorities said Negron received another US$150,000 in cash, only to return US$125,000 of it in 2011 after failing to secure a new trial for Figueroa.

The indictment does not say who provided the funds, but authorities said the money was derived from drug sales.

Rodriguez said prosecutors have no evidence that any officials, including judges, politicians and police officers, were ever approached with a bribe offer by anyone involved in the scheme.

A total of 56 people have been arrested in Figueroa’s case, and more than 3 million tons of drugs seized, said Angel Melendez, Puerto Rico-based special agent for Homeland Security Investigations of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This investigation is quite extensive and is still ongoing,” he said.