Plot for Bombing in San Diego Revealed
A top assassin for Colombian drug lords was planning to bomb U.S. courts and drug agencies--including one in San Diego--when he was arrested, according to documents released Thursday in Manuel Noriega’s case.
The suspect, Dandeny Munoz Mosquera, called a Medellin cartel “hit man” by federal prosecutors, was arrested in a New York City telephone booth in September and is now in prison.
Munoz planned “to organize a group to bomb critical government installations across the country (e.g., the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego and the United States Courthouse in Miami) and kill an anticipated witness in the Noriega prosecution,” the documents said.
U.S. law enforcement agents said they were tipped to the plot by Roberto Striedinger, 44, a Medellin drug cartel pilot who testified against Noriega. The Colombian pilot was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison, and could be out in eight months, according to defense lawyer Neil Taylor.
In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler praised “the courage Mr. Striedinger has exhibited in assisting the government.”
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