A New York City court on Wednesday convicted a Colombian drug trafficker to 23 years in prison for transporting cocaine and heroin to the United States.
Suspect Jose Mosquera-Prado “and the Colombian-based narco-trafficking organization in which he was a senior player, were responsible for moving massive quantities of cocaine and heroin from country to country, with the ultimate goal of shipping it to the U.S,” said a Manhattan U.S. Attorney in a press release.
Mosquera behaved as the top lieutenant to Colombian drug lord Francisco Gonzalez-Uribe, who reportedly was a go-between of Colombian drug gang “Los Rastrojos” and Mexico’s “Sinaloa” cartel.
Gonzalez-Uribe was sentenced to 30 years in prison after a U.S. judge considered it proven that his international narcotics-trafficking organization routed tons of cocaine and heroin through various locations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and other countries. These narcotics were then transported to the United States and Europe.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration detected Mosquera when they found recorded telephone calls personally orchestrating the shipment of the cocaine and heroin. The shipment was linked to a significant and earlier seizure of narcotics from members of Gonzalez-Uribe’s narco-trafficking organization.
The U.S. Department of Justice designated Gonzalez-Uribe as a Consolidated Priority Organization Target, which is a special priority drug trafficking target for U.S. federal law enforcement agents.
The Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s office says that the office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit is handling Jose Mosquera’s case.
