Colombia Drug Kingpin Convicted : Found Guilty of Running Van Nuys Based Cocaine Ring

A Los Angeles jury found Honduran billionaire Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros guilty today of being the absentee overseer of a Van Nuys-based cocaine ring in a decision hailed as a powerful message of support for the Colombian government’s war on drug traffickers.

“We’re sending the right message that we want to send to the Colombian government, that if they extradite drug kingpins we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law,” said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jimmy Gurule.

Matta, 45, was accused of overseeing from Colombia a network that distributed $72-million worth of cocaine in Southern California. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration claimed he controlled a narcotics empire worth up to $2 billion.

The U.S. District Court jury found Matta guilty of one count of conspiracy, one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise, one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and four counts of distribution of cocaine.

The charges stemmed from a September, 1981, raid on a Van Nuys apartment complex that netted $1.9 million in cash and 114 pounds of cocaine--at that time the largest seizure of the drug in California history.

Matta faces 10 years to life in prison at sentencing Oct. 5.

Matta’s attorney sought to portray the Honduran as a legitimate businessman who was the single largest employer in Honduras before his arrest there in 1988.

The government argued that Matta was a kingpin of the powerful cocaine cartel based in Cali, Colombia, that distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine to Arizona and Southern California through Mexico.

Stolar argued that Matta was illegally extradited from Honduras, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Police and troops arrested Matta in a predawn raid on his Tegucigalpa home in 1988 and deported him to the United States by way of the Dominican Republic.

Enraged over the extradition, about 2,000 demonstrators burned the U.S. Embassy annex. Five Hondurans died in a week of disturbances.