DOJ Charges Former Colombian Intelligence Official, Conspirators for Drug Trafficking
Fabian Humberto Tovar Caicedo, a former Colombian Army intelligence officer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine for import into the U.S. Tovar Caicedo offered certain "corrupt services" to a drug trafficking organization, including the provision of police in Colombia's Port of Santa Marta that that were willing to "facilitate the export of cocaine in exchange for payment," DOJ said April 25.
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Fabian Andres Leyton Vargas, a Colombian Air Force officer, helped to bribe port security officials to ensure the "cocaine-laden cargo containers passed uninspected through the port," the agency said. Vargas, along with co-conspirators Antonio Aldemar Avila Acevedo and Jose Mauricio Castaneda Garzon, tried to ship 1,773 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Guatemala en route to the U.S. in July 2017, and 2,081 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico en route to the U.S. in March 2018. Colombian law enforcement seized both shipments before they left the port. Vargas and Acevedo were sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Garzon was sentenced to seven years.
In a related case, Jose Maria Fragoso D'Acunti, a former member of the Colombian National Police, planned the export of multi-hundred-kilogram shipments of cocaine to Europe by hiding the drugs in commercial shipping containers commingled with pineapples or limes. Multiple shipments were seized at the port of Savannah, Georgia, in 2018. D'Acunti was sentenced to 12 years in prison.