By Danny Fenster
ticklethewire.com
A top lieutenant to a Colombian drug kingpin was convicted in a Manhattan court this week of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine and heroine, according to a Justice Department press release.
Jose Mosquera-Prado, 36, was a top lieutenant in Francisco Gonzalez Uribe’s international narcotics-trafficking organization, says the Justice Department, and was convicted after a two-week jury trial. The organization shipped tons of cocaine and heroine throughout Central and South America, as well as Europe.
DEA agents seized large quantities of narcotics from members of Mosquera-Prado’s drug ring during two undercover operations in early 2009, when Mosquera-Prado was intercepted on recorded telephone calls arranging for the shipment of drugs to New York City. The drugs seized had an estimated value of $2 million. DEA agents worked cooperatively with the governments of both Colombia and the Domician Republic, says the Justice Department.
Each of Mosquera-Prado’s charges-one for importing the drugs and one for distributing them-carries a maximum life sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for next April 20.
Mosquera-Prado’s boss, Gonzalez Uribe, was considered a Consolidated Priority Target (CPOT) by the Justice department, a designation reserved for “the most dangerous and prolific traffickers in the world.” He was arrested in the Dominic Republic in 2009 and later pled guilty to conspiracy charges of narcotics importation and distribution, then sentenced to 30 years in prison.
