Terrorist Gets 10 Life Terms in Jet Bombing

A man described as a “narco-terrorist” for killing 110 people with a bomb he planted on a Colombian jetliner was sentenced Friday to 10 life prison terms.

The Avianca flight blew up over Bogota, Colombia, on Nov. 27, 1989. It was not until 1991 that Dandeny Munoz-Mosquera, already in prison other charges, was indicted in the case.

Munoz-Mosquera was portrayed at his trial as a hired killer and drug smuggler in the violent Medellin cartel, then headed by Pablo Escobar.

Escobar also was indicted for the bombing of Flight 203, but was killed in a shootout with Colombian security forces in 1993. Authorities said Escobar was believed to have targeted the plane because he suspected drug-trade rivals or informants were on board.

The bomb on Flight 203, traveling from Bogota to Cali, Colombia, killed 107 passengers, including two Americans, and three people on the ground.

U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. sentenced Munoz-Mosquera to 10 consecutive life terms, plus 45 years, in federal prison.

“Not only are you an evil man, the things that you did, you enjoyed,” the judge told Munoz-Mosquera, 29. “These things cry out for the death penalty.”

Munoz-Mosquera was convicted in December of 13 charges, including racketeering, cocaine smuggling, destruction of an aircraft and first-degree murder for the deaths of the two Americans.