same investigation. Since August 2006, Humbeiro Carvajalmontoya led a drug trafficking organization that smuggled heroin into the United States from Colombia through the Jose Maria Cordoba International Airport in Medellin, Colombia. The organization included law enforcement officials and airport and airline personnel who facilitated the export of heroin through Medellin Airport. Couriers for the organization smuggled heroin into the United States inside layers of clothing, within the linings of suitcases and handbags, beneath false bottoms of suitcases, inside computers, and inside international cargo, among other means. Organization couriers traveled at least once a month from the Medellin area to New York City, each time carrying between several hundred grams to several kilograms of heroin at a time. New York SAC John P. Gilbride stated, "Due to these arrests, millions of dollars of heroin will cease to land in our neighborhoods and those responsible will face the consequences of their actions."
its own private, rogue navy to run a drug business that was nearly as sophisticated as a small nation. As well-equipped and complex as this enterprise was, it was a matter of time before law enforcement caught on, and now Rayo-Montano's decadent, drug-funded lifestyle has caught up with him. This morning, his real estate holdings went from three islands to one jail cell."
Kingpin Salazar-Espinoza Extradited and Found Guilty
FARC Associate Extradited to United States On April 22, 2008, Juan Jose Martinez Vega, aka "Gentil Alvis Patino," aka "Chiguiro," was extradited from Colombia to the United States to face cocaine importation conspiracy charges. Martinez Vega was a FARC associate who worked closely with the FARC's 16th Front and assisted the FARC in procuring weapons, ammunition, money and other materials in exchange for cocaine and cocaine paste. Over several years, Martinez Vega made dozens of such deliveries to the 16th Front, including a delivery in February 2002 of 37 tons of weapons and ammunition in exchange for 2,500 kilograms of cocaine paste and 750 million Colombian pesos. Martinez Vega also led, in 1996, a squad of FARC members that executed four other FARC members suspected of stealing arms which the FARC purchased with cocaine.
On June 18, 2007, a jury in Manhattan convicted Manuel "Hoover" Salazar-Espinosa on cocaine importation and money laundering charges. Manuel Hoover Salazar-Espinosa was a CPOT and had conspired with notorious Mexican cocaine cartel leaders Armando Valencia-Cornelio and Oscar Navavalencia to import ton-quantities of Colombian cocaine, through Mexico, to the City of New York, on a weekly basis. Salazar-Espinosa had also assisted in the laundering of $14 million in narcotics proceeds per week during the period 2002 to 2005, and was responsible for a 1.3-ton cocaine shipment destined for the United States that was seized while concealed in the arm of a crane in Panama in July 2005. Colombian authorities, pursuant to a request for a provisional arrest from the United States, arrested Salazar-Espinoza in Cali, Colombia on May 23, 2005. He was extradited from Colombia on August 23, 2006.
Afghanistan Afghanistan Five Pillar Plan
Colombian Police Officers and Airline Employees Arrested
On November 17, 2004, DEA joined with coalition partners, the State Department, and the Department of Defense in announcing its involvement in the U.S. Embassy Kabul Counternarcotics Implementation Plan. This represented an expansion of the DEA-led 19-country Operation Containment multilateral strategy begun in 2002 to choke off the flow of drugs and precursor chemicals into and out of Afghanistan before they can spread to broader markets. The Five Pillar Plan provided DEA unique opportunities to reduce heroin production in Afghanistan, the world’s leading opium producer, and contribute to the stabilization and rebuilding of the war-torn
On November 28, 2007, five individuals, including Colombian law enforcement and airport and airline personnel, were arrested in Colombia and charged with conspiracy to import heroin into the United States. Three others, including two Colombian law enforcement officials, were previously arrested as part of the
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