Jose Gabriel Alvarez Ortiz, International Cocaine Distribution, Texas 2026

Houston, TX – A 26-year-old man has landed in Houston, bringing the total number of alleged associates of the ELN to three.

José Gabriel Alvarez Ortiz is set to make his initial appearance in Houston federal court tomorrow at 2 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray. Ortiz is charged with distributing cocaine with other alleged members of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional aka ELN), a Colombian guerrilla group officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

According to the indictment, Ortiz and four others allegedly participated in distributing approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine in Colombia in early 2019, knowing it would be imported into the United States. Ortiz’s co-defendants, Yamit Picon-Rodriguez aka Choncha, 36, and Henry Trigos-Celon aka Moncho Picada, 44, were extradited last month and are facing narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges.

The ELN is considered one of the largest narco-terrorism organizations in the world, operating in Colombia for over 20 years. Picon-Rodriguez, Trigos-Celon, and others allegedly involved in the conspiracy are also charged with distribution of a controlled substance and knowing or intending to provide anything of pecuniary value to a person or organization that engages in terrorism or terrorist activity (narco-terrorism).

The case is part of an ongoing investigation into the ELN, which has been ongoing since 2020. The Houston Divisions of the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted the investigation as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). The operation, dubbed Operation Catatumbo Lightning, is part of an OCDETF Strike Forces initiative which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Ortiz, Picon-Rodriguez, and Trigos-Celon, and others on February 12, 2020. Colombian authorities took them into custody at the request of the United States in September 2020.

FBI and DEA agents in Bogota provided substantial support, as did the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) multi-agency Special Operations Division, including assigned attorneys from the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and National Security Division, as well as DOJ Judicial Attaches in Colombia with the cooperation of Colombian authorities.

The U.S. Department of State, through its narcotics rewards program, is offering up to a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Villegas-Palomino, a suspected ELN leader.

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