The United States has indicted several leaders of Colombian neo-paramilitary and drug gangs, a Florida U.S. attorney announced Wednesday.
Indicted Colombian drug trafficking suspects
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The most prominent and recent indictment is that of Diego Perez Henao, alias “Diego Rastrojo,” one of the three alleged leaders of the “Rastrojos” drug gang that operates from southwest Colombia and is considered the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the country.
Apart from the Rastrojos leader, prosecutors previously indicted seven other Colombians involved in gangs that emerged from the now-defunct Norte del Valle cartel and demobilized paramilitary organization AUC.
According to U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, the unit formed by the Southern District of Florida, the DEA, the U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the Miami Field Office will work together with Colombian authorities and focus specifically on drug trafficking and neo-paramilitary organizations that took control of Colombia’s drug trade after the demise of the old cartels and the AUC.
“Law enforcement’s success in removing the leadership of the major Colombian drug trafficking organizations has resulted in smaller groups, or bands of criminals, coming together to continue large scale importation of cocaine into the United States,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Division Mark R. Trouville.
The U.S. and Colombia have long worked together in fighting the Colombian production and trafficking of cocaine.
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