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Colombian 'heroin kingpin' sentenced to 40 years in US jail
Today Online
1 June 2006
Colombian "heroin kingpin" Ramiro Lopez-Imitola was sentenced in New York yesterday to 40 years in prison for smuggling US$200 million ($315.7 million) worth of the highly addictive drug into the United States, the authorities said.
Lopez-Imitola, who headed a heroin trafficking ring based in Colombia and Venezuela, had pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment in March last year.
His organisation had exported more than two tonnes of heroin into the US since it began the illegal trade 1997, the authorities said.
He was extradited from Colombia to the US in 2004.
Lopez-Imitola "is one of the most prolific heroin traffickers ever prosecuted in the United States", said the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The drug kingpin was accused of using torture and intimidation to control his criminal enterprise.
District Judge Robert Patterson ordered him to forfeit the street value of the heroin his organisation sold in the United States — US$200 million.
The authorities said 17 members of the Lopez-Imitola organisation had been arrested and more than 50 kg of heroin had been seized.
The heroin was smuggled to Venezuela from Colombia before entering the United States.
More than 250 "human couriers" were recruited to ingest heroin pellets or conceal the narcotic inside suitcases in a daily smuggling operation from Venezuela to the US, the authorities said. — AFP
Link
Today Online
1 June 2006
Colombian "heroin kingpin" Ramiro Lopez-Imitola was sentenced in New York yesterday to 40 years in prison for smuggling US$200 million ($315.7 million) worth of the highly addictive drug into the United States, the authorities said.
Lopez-Imitola, who headed a heroin trafficking ring based in Colombia and Venezuela, had pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment in March last year.
His organisation had exported more than two tonnes of heroin into the US since it began the illegal trade 1997, the authorities said.
He was extradited from Colombia to the US in 2004.
Lopez-Imitola "is one of the most prolific heroin traffickers ever prosecuted in the United States", said the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The drug kingpin was accused of using torture and intimidation to control his criminal enterprise.
District Judge Robert Patterson ordered him to forfeit the street value of the heroin his organisation sold in the United States — US$200 million.
The authorities said 17 members of the Lopez-Imitola organisation had been arrested and more than 50 kg of heroin had been seized.
The heroin was smuggled to Venezuela from Colombia before entering the United States.
More than 250 "human couriers" were recruited to ingest heroin pellets or conceal the narcotic inside suitcases in a daily smuggling operation from Venezuela to the US, the authorities said. — AFP
Link
