If you’ve been following the developments in the Brown University shooting, and the numerous missteps made by law enforcement officials in Providence and elsewhere in Rhode Island, you’ve probably noticed one thing: Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez is the biggest incompetent of them all.
Now, Perez is facing questions of a different sort, particularly what he knew — if anything — about a massive drug-trafficking ring that was being run by his nephew, who officials said seemed to have unusual insight into the ways of law enforcement.
Granted, both state and local law enforcement have been under a microscope since the Saturday shooting failed to produce immediate answers, and even more so after a person of interest turned out to be, from all appearances, completely guilty. We don’t know what motivated the shooter, or whether his choice of targets had to do with a College Republicans official who was killed (and whose family has said she was targeted), or an Israel-supporting professor whose classroom was the target for the shooter.
And granted, nobody would look good if there was nobody caught five days after a major mass shooting, and nobody is saying that Police Chief Perez is solely responsible for the lack of answers in the tragedy. However, when one sees footage like this:
The police are refusing to say what the Brown University shooter yelled before opening fire and kiIIing 2 people
Witnesses say he shouted “Allahu Akbar.”
Why are the police covering this up? pic.twitter.com/xmCPGmVTwc
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 16, 2025
… or this:
WATCH:@ProvidenceRIPD Providence, Rhode Island’s DEI hire Hispanic police chief Oscar Perez, who speaks in Spanish half the time he gives his press conferences, was called out today by a Hispanic reporter during his latest press briefing. The reporter accused the Police Chief… https://t.co/YSxoRO0NBU pic.twitter.com/xVkMcpQkRu
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 18, 2025
… or even this:
WATCH:
Amid mounting scrutiny over officials’ handling of Saturday’s shooting at Brown University, Providence police chief Oscar Perez misspoke about key details when questioned by reporters.
Perez initially said video of the suspect was captured inside the building before the… pic.twitter.com/y8F74ZPjdO
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 17, 2025
… or this clip from before the shooting now making the rounds:
🚨The Brown University mass shooting will likely never be solved. Imported immigrant Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez has prioritized DEI hiring. 2 years later his detectives are the worst in the nation. 11 defenseless students shot, 2 murdered will never see justice. pic.twitter.com/27Afx9WYoE
— Dapper Detective (@Dapper_Det) December 17, 2025
… you get the feeling that this might not be the man for the job.
And now we have more proof that maybe Perez ought have been vetted more carefully: a 2024 case in which the chief’s nephew, Jasdrual “Josh” Perez, was painted as one of the “biggest” and “most dangerous” opioid kingpins ever to face sentencing in Boston federal court.
According to the Providence Journal, Perez “likely sold hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl – the deadly drug most responsible for the opioid epidemic that has been ravaging New England,” prosecutors said.
“Perez was one of the most prolific drug traffickers in Providence, if not all of Rhode Island,” they wrote in a memo ahead of his sentencing last year. He was given 22 years.
BREAKING: The Providence police chief’s nephew, Jasdrual “Josh” Perez, has been sentenced to 22 and a half years in federal prison for running one of the largest fentanyl drug rings in the region.
w/@TimWhiteRI https://t.co/Ho2e5XRFym
— Eli Sherman (@Eli_Sherman) December 16, 2024
Obviously, if someone has gotten by on excellent job performance and there aren’t concerns about them being tied to the crime, we needn’t be asking second questions about their nephew’s abhorrent behavior. First, he hasn’t, which is why we’re talking about this in the first place.
Second, while the Journal reported last December that federal authorities “do not accuse either the chief or his younger brother, Sgt. Andres Perez, of breaking any laws,” it certainly sounds like they weren’t exactly putting them in the clear, either.
From the Providence Journal:
In their memo, prosecutors detail Josh Perez’s family ties to both of his uncles on the force.
They salt their arguments with details that raise questions about matters they find significant: A correlation, for example, between the timing of Josh Perez’s rise in the New England drug world and the period when his uncles worked as ranking officers in the department. And a particular WhatsApp chat between Josh Perez and Andres Perez regarding a particular surveillance camera related to a federal investigation. …
Prosecutors also credit Josh Perez for hitting a level of “knowledge and technique for avoiding law enforcement” that is “rarely seen amongst drug dealers.”
Granted, Andres Perez might be a more logical target of prosecutorial resources, given the fact that he was the head of the department’s intelligence unit during Josh Perez’s rise to prominence and prosecutors say Josh “involved” Andres by bringing him, his mother, and his sister “either willful or unwitting participants,” including using his mother and sister’s properties to conduct drug transactions.
Perhaps most importantly, despite being the largest fentanyl trafficker in New England according to the feds, they didn’t turn up any evidence that Providence police “ever investigated Perez’s drug trafficking,” with authorities not finding “a single piece of paper in its investigative files naming Josh Perez as a target or witness or a source.”
Are we supposed to believe that Josh Perez is more elusive than Keyser Söze and Walter White, only IRL? Or is it more likely that Providence’s police force is incompetent, and (at the very least) selectively so? If you believe B is more likely than A, you’ve already reached a cause to fire Chief Perez.
At the very least, now that he’s revealed himself to be unfit for the job in the space of just a few days with his inadequate response to a major mass shooting, Chief Perez very much needs to explain exactly how this happened, how he bears no responsibility, and how he navigated the situation.
Otherwise, people are more than justified in at least wondering if he helped cover for “one of the most prolific drug traffickers in Providence, if not all of Rhode Island.”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
