A Colombian national has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States.
Álvaro Fredy Córdoba Ruíz, 65, of Medellín, Colombia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman today for his role in a cocaine importation conspiracy.
According to court documents, Córdoba Ruíz conspired with his co-defendants and other individuals associated with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to source and distribute tons of cocaine destined for the United States.
Córdoba Ruíz negotiated with individuals he believed to be narcotics traffickers from a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization seeking to establish a cocaine supply line from Venezuela to the United States. However, these individuals were actually confidential sources working at the direction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In recorded communications during the investigation, Córdoba Ruíz agreed to assist the planned cocaine venture through his political and logistics connections in Colombia. He connected confidential sources with a Colombian politician, conveying that, in exchange for financial and political support, the politician would help to facilitate a cocaine partnership between the defendant, his co-conspirators, and the confidential sources purportedly functioning as the Mexican DTO.
Córdoba Ruíz also connected the confidential sources with individuals who offered to provide large quantities of cocaine and security for the promised cocaine loads. In December 2021, he sold the confidential sources a five-kilogram sample of cocaine containing a high level of purity — lab tests demonstrate the cocaine was between 86.6% to 89.1% pure — from a FARC-associated farm outside of Medellín.
Córdoba Ruíz was arrested in Colombia in February 2022, while negotiating a much larger partnership with the Mexican DTO, which contemplated the shipment of approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine per week.
In addition to the prison term, Córdoba Ruíz was sentenced to four years of supervised release. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit and Bogotá Country Office, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of the Judicial Attaché in Bogotá.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation, which identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
The OCDETF Program is a key component of the Department of Justice’s strategy to combat transnational narcotics trafficking and other organized crime threats.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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