US Sentences Ex-Colombian Military Intelligence Official To 12 Years - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th April, 2023) A former Colombian military intelligence official has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for participating in a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, the US Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.

"From August 2017 through April 2018, Fabian Humberto Tovar Caicedo, 41, a sergeant in the Colombian Army Intelligence, assisted a drug trafficking organization (DTO) and conspired to send multi-thousand-kilogram shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico for eventual importation into the United States," the release said.

Tovar Caicedo offered various corrupt services to the DTO, including providing police officers in the Port of Santa Marta willing to facilitate the export of cocaine in exchange for payment as well as communications equipment, the release said.

In addition, Tovar Caicedo organized a number of meetings to distribute cocaine and plotted to send several shipments, with the intention of moving as much as 10,000 kilograms of cocaine per shipment, the release added.

Tovar Caicedo is the fifth person to be sentenced in the investigation of extraterritorial acts of corruption by certain members of the Colombian Army, Air Force and National Police, according to the release.