Accused Colombian drug lord pleads guilty to U.S. charges
A top Colombian drug lord whom the United States has long considered one of the most dangerous smugglers pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to trafficking tons of heroin and cocaine into the U.S.
Francisco Gonzalez-Uribe had been awaiting trial in New York on charges of running a criminal enterprise dating back at least to 2007 that was accused of shipping loads of drugs to New York and other U.S. cities.
Federal prosecutors are likely to seek a sentence of life in prison with no parole. Now 44 years old, Gonzalez-Uribe was arrested in 2009 in the Dominican Republic and extradited to the United States.
According to the case against him, Gonzalez-Uribe ran an enterprise that shipped drugs to Mexico and countries in Central and South America, and then moved the narcotics to the U.S. and Europe.
Authorities said that that during two undercover operations in early 2009, Drug Enforcement Administration agents intercepted phone calls in which Gonzalez-Uribe orchestrated the shipment of narcotics to New York, and the DEA seized drugs with a wholesale value of about $2 million.
Gonzalez-Uribe also was heard on the phone attempting to purchase a number of large aircraft, including a DC-8 jet, authorities said.
Before his arrest, Gonzalez-Uribe was placed on the Justice Department’s roster of 40 targeted international “command and control” drug traffickers and money launderers.
The target list, which is much like the FBI’s most-wanted list, is aimed at taking down some of the “world’s most dangerous and prolific narcotics traffickers.”
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