A former Colombian military intelligence officer was sentenced this Tuesday in the United States to pay 12 years in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine bound for this country.
(Also: “There was a ruthless attack”: brother of a Colombian murdered in Mexico)This is Army Intelligence Sergeant Fabián Humberto Tovar Caicedo, 41 years old.
Once these officials received their corrupt payments, they ensured that the cocaine-laden containers passed through the port without inspection.
According to court documents, from August 2017 to April 2018, Tovar Caicedo, 41, was part of a drug gang that shipped thousands of kilograms of coke to the US through Mexico.
These documents describe how Tovar Caicedo bribed other members of the security forces to allow the passage of coca from Santa Marta and offered criminals his military training to encrypt phones so they couldn’t be tracked or hacked by authorities.
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Tovar Caicedo is the fifth Colombian to be sentenced as part of a multi-year investigation that ended up involving members of the Army, the Air Force and the Police.
One of them was Fabián Andrés Leyton Vargas, a Colombian Air Force officer whom the defendant met during military training in the United States.
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“Leyton Vargas used his position in the Colombian Ministry of Defense to identify and contact law enforcement and security officials at the Port of Santa Marta to be targeted for bribes. Once these officials received their corrupt payments, they made sure that the containers loaded with cocaine passed through the port without inspection,” the text reads.
The others are Antonio Aldemar Ávila Acevedo and José Mauricio Castañeda Garzón and José María Fragoso D’Acunti.
D’Acunti admitted to authorities that he used his previous position in the Colombian National Police, along with family and other connections, to identify and bribe security personnel and law enforcement officials at the port of Cartagena. , Colombia, to help his organization traffic cocaine.
Ávila Acevedo, Fragoso D’Acunti, and Leyton Vargas had already also been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Castañeda Garzón, for his part, received a seven-year sentence.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
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