María Patricia Rodríguez Monsalve aka "La Señora," "La Doctora"
(Top photo: CNP)
(Bottom photo: marcfievet.com Narconews de Colombia)
Twenty-five suspects with alleged ties to the Colombian Pilot Drug Cartel charged with drug trafficking in the Eastern District of Texas
By H. Nelson Goodson
February 14, 2010
Dallas, Texas -On Friday, the U.S. Drug Administration (U.S. DEA) through a press release said, that U.S. Attorney John M. Bales in Beaumont, Texas had announced that 25 alleged members of the Pilot Cartel, a Colombian drug trafficking organization had been indicted by a Plano federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas. The indictment, which was returned by the federal grand jury on Oct. 15, 2009 and unsealed on Feb. 5, 2010, charged the 25 defendants with drug trafficking crimes, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and manufacturing and distribution of cocaine in the United States. According to the indictment, the defendants are alleged to be members of the Pilot Cartel, a drug trafficking organization with ties to the Eduardo Gaitan Cartel in Medellin and other drug cartels in Central America, but were the main cocaine suppliers for both the Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. The suspects who earned about $300,000 U.S. per shipment and earning more than $1 million U.S. dollars per year, are responsible for transporting by private aircrafts between 5-7 tons of cocaine weekly through Central America and Mexico as a transshipment point. One of suspects would actually transport between 4-7 tons per month. To date, this investigation has seized 7.5 tons of cocaine and $4.25 million in assets, the DEA confirmed.
Last Monday, 21 suspects, including 12 pilots, 4 who financed the operation and 4 who managed the operation, were arrested under an extradition request by the U.S. in various cities, Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga, Ibagué, Chía and Villanueva (Casanare) in Colombia. Among them was María Patricia Rodríguez Monsalve, 38, aka "La Señora" or "La Doctora" a pilot herself and the leader of the Pilot Cartel. She is the first high ranking drug cartel woman leader to be detained.
Authorities are now looking for 4 more suspects who were indicted, and more than 16 other arrests related to the operation of Pilot Cartel are expected. The 21 suspects are in the process of being extradicted to the U.S. If convicted of multiple charges, they are facing from 10 years to life in a federal prison.
Those charged, arrested and subject for extradition to the U.S.A. from Colombia include: Jairo Hernando Rodríguez Beltrán, Fabio Lorenzo Ibarra Cruz, Mario Fernándo Gómez González, John Freddy Correa, Freddy Arciniegas Niño, Óscar Orlando Barrera Pineda, Luis Guillermo Valencia Bedoya, Erik Van Dorian López Agudelo, Cristian Vásquez Angel, Hermán Federico Umbreit Urrutia, Óscar Ruiz Correa, Jaime Gonzalo Castiblanco Calbancante, Javier Marín Arboleda, Fernando Alexander Moreno Rodríguez, José Guillermo Gallón Henao, Bayron de Jesús González Vásquez, Robert William Villegas, Jaime Andrés Rodríguez Melo, Hugo Ancir Megudán Méndez, Orlando Prieto Gómez and Maria Patricia Rodríguez Monsalve.
Rodríguez Monsalve's operations was the infrastructure for the Maximiliano Bonilla aka "Valenciano," Danie Barrera aka "El Loco Barrera," and the Javier Antonio and Luis Enrique Calle brothers, known as "Los Comba" (the gang).
Rodríguez Monsalve along with five other suspects operated the Pilot Drug Cartel. They handled flight smuggling operations from Rodriguez Monsalve private properties that were turned into clandestine air fields connecting air routes from the Pacific, Central America to Mexico, and then the drugs would get smuggled into the U.S.
The five suspects were identified as, Freddy Arciniegas Niño, José Guilerrmo Gallón Henao, Mario Gómez, Julio Hernando Moya, and John Freddy Correa who is also affiliated with the brothers "Comba" or "Calle Serna". Freddy Correa was able to managed the cocaine drug making laboratories in Nariño, Cauca and Valle de Cauca in Colombia.
Eric Van Dorian López Agudelo, was an active special agent with the Colombian Department of Security Administration (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS) compatibile to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He allegedly provided information to the Pilot Drug Cartel in exchange for money, according to the U.S. federal indictment.
Gómez was able to recruit other pilots and the drug smuggling air routes extended to Honduras, Nicaragua Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panamá, Venezuela, Africa and Europe. Moya was in the process of establishing various businesses in Florida and handled the alteration of flight plans and provided false documents for the airplanes.
Authorities confiscated between 15-25 private planes including 5 which were registered to Rodríguez Monsalve who travelled to Panamá and Miami frequently, where she owned luxury apartments.
Rodríguez Monsalve is the widow of Francisco Iván Cifuentes Villa aka "El Pancho" who supplied the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico with 5-6 tons of cocaine weekly before he was killed on April 23, 2007. His wife inherited the operation until last week when the Colombian National Police and the U.S. DEA took the suspects into custody without incident, after a two year investigation.
The coordinated undercover law enforcement deployment of 35 units with more than 80 special agents, Texas law enforcement and the Colombian National Police (CNP) and involving at least ten countries operated as "Operation Frontiers" or "Operation No Fly Zone" in a foreign country, is the largest cocaine drug bust within the last decade, according to General Óscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo of the CNP. It was a model operation and other countries should following similar law enforcement operations, added Naranjo Trujillo.
Operation Frontiers included training a dozen beautiful, attractive and sexy looking undercover police women who managed to infiltrated the Pilot Cartel and gather intelligence for more than six months. The women frequent a nightclub in Colombia where the members of the Pilot Cartel hangout. They were able to befriend, seduce and get air flight schedules of cocaine shipments from the pilots. The police women have becomed known as "Las Bella Mujeres con Placas, the Pretty Women with a Badge" all over Latin America, since the news broke last week about their success in shuting down one of the largest air drug smuggling operations within ten countries including Africa and Europe.
The U.S. government and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of the State of Texas were initially involved when one of the private planes used in the Pilot Drug Cartel smuggling operation was traced back to where it was purchased in Beaumont, Texas. Also, when an informant gave authorities a cell phone number from a pilot in August 2007. The pilot later crashed his plane with a cargo of cocaine and killed himself. When authorities traced phone calls from his cell phone, they discovered that Rodríguez Monsalve had frequently called the pilot. Authorities then realized that Rodríguez Monsalve had taken over her late husband's drug trafficking operations. Her phone was wiretapped and authorities heard conversations of shipments and quantities between pilots and her. Pilots phones were also wiretapped and it was discovered that Civil Air officials were collaborating with the smugglers and provided them with permits and fight plans.
"We cannot sit back and allow these drug trafficking organizations, wherever they are located, to transport tons of cocaine to the United States, with impunity," said U.S. Attorney Bales. "In this operation, the agents, both American and Colombian, are literally reaching across hemispheres to strike a blow against a criminal organization that is a vital lifeline to several Mexican drug cartels. We are proud to be part of what we believe to be an historical effort in the war on drugs."
"Operation ‘No Fly Zone’ represents an unprecedented level of international law enforcement cooperation between the Colombian National Police and North Texas law enforcement agencies,” said James L. Capra, Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “The complete dismantlement of this criminal organization based in Colombia will severely impact the ability of drug traffickers to transport cocaine from the jungles of Colombia, via Central America and Mexico, to the United States using small aircraft.”
Terri K. Wyatt, Special Agent/PIO says, the case is being investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas) HIDTA Group 1 and the Colombian National Police. HIDTA Group 1 consists of: the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Coppell Police Department, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, the Dallas Police Department, the Ellis County Sheriff's Office, the Internal Revenue Service, the Irving Police Department, the Richardson Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Waxahachie Police Department. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather Rattan and Camelia Lopez.
Provisional arrest warrants, the legal instruments which triggered the enforcement actions and arrests in Colombia, were prepared with the assistance of the DOJ Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs in Washington D.C., assistance of the DOJ Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs in Washington D.C.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
For an online copy of the unsealed February 5, 2010 federal indictment by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Eastern District Court of Texas is posted at ketknbc.com: http://bit.ly/aVupfV
Related Pilot Drug Cartel articles:
Historic drug bust: U.S. DEA and Colombian National Police stop air shipments of 5-6 tons of cocaine weekly to 10 countries http://bit.ly/awsorH
Colombian undercover police women trained by U.S. DEA instrumental in Pilot Cartel drug bust effecting six drug cartels http://bit.ly/9b57zl
Connected by MOTOBLUR™ on T-Mobile
(Top photo: CNP)
(Bottom photo: marcfievet.com Narconews de Colombia)
Twenty-five suspects with alleged ties to the Colombian Pilot Drug Cartel charged with drug trafficking in the Eastern District of Texas
By H. Nelson Goodson
February 14, 2010
Dallas, Texas -On Friday, the U.S. Drug Administration (U.S. DEA) through a press release said, that U.S. Attorney John M. Bales in Beaumont, Texas had announced that 25 alleged members of the Pilot Cartel, a Colombian drug trafficking organization had been indicted by a Plano federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas. The indictment, which was returned by the federal grand jury on Oct. 15, 2009 and unsealed on Feb. 5, 2010, charged the 25 defendants with drug trafficking crimes, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and manufacturing and distribution of cocaine in the United States. According to the indictment, the defendants are alleged to be members of the Pilot Cartel, a drug trafficking organization with ties to the Eduardo Gaitan Cartel in Medellin and other drug cartels in Central America, but were the main cocaine suppliers for both the Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Sinaloa Cartel and the Tijuana Cartel. The suspects who earned about $300,000 U.S. per shipment and earning more than $1 million U.S. dollars per year, are responsible for transporting by private aircrafts between 5-7 tons of cocaine weekly through Central America and Mexico as a transshipment point. One of suspects would actually transport between 4-7 tons per month. To date, this investigation has seized 7.5 tons of cocaine and $4.25 million in assets, the DEA confirmed.
Last Monday, 21 suspects, including 12 pilots, 4 who financed the operation and 4 who managed the operation, were arrested under an extradition request by the U.S. in various cities, Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga, Ibagué, Chía and Villanueva (Casanare) in Colombia. Among them was María Patricia Rodríguez Monsalve, 38, aka "La Señora" or "La Doctora" a pilot herself and the leader of the Pilot Cartel. She is the first high ranking drug cartel woman leader to be detained.
Authorities are now looking for 4 more suspects who were indicted, and more than 16 other arrests related to the operation of Pilot Cartel are expected. The 21 suspects are in the process of being extradicted to the U.S. If convicted of multiple charges, they are facing from 10 years to life in a federal prison.
Those charged, arrested and subject for extradition to the U.S.A. from Colombia include: Jairo Hernando Rodríguez Beltrán, Fabio Lorenzo Ibarra Cruz, Mario Fernándo Gómez González, John Freddy Correa, Freddy Arciniegas Niño, Óscar Orlando Barrera Pineda, Luis Guillermo Valencia Bedoya, Erik Van Dorian López Agudelo, Cristian Vásquez Angel, Hermán Federico Umbreit Urrutia, Óscar Ruiz Correa, Jaime Gonzalo Castiblanco Calbancante, Javier Marín Arboleda, Fernando Alexander Moreno Rodríguez, José Guillermo Gallón Henao, Bayron de Jesús González Vásquez, Robert William Villegas, Jaime Andrés Rodríguez Melo, Hugo Ancir Megudán Méndez, Orlando Prieto Gómez and Maria Patricia Rodríguez Monsalve.
Rodríguez Monsalve's operations was the infrastructure for the Maximiliano Bonilla aka "Valenciano," Danie Barrera aka "El Loco Barrera," and the Javier Antonio and Luis Enrique Calle brothers, known as "Los Comba" (the gang).
Rodríguez Monsalve along with five other suspects operated the Pilot Drug Cartel. They handled flight smuggling operations from Rodriguez Monsalve private properties that were turned into clandestine air fields connecting air routes from the Pacific, Central America to Mexico, and then the drugs would get smuggled into the U.S.
The five suspects were identified as, Freddy Arciniegas Niño, José Guilerrmo Gallón Henao, Mario Gómez, Julio Hernando Moya, and John Freddy Correa who is also affiliated with the brothers "Comba" or "Calle Serna". Freddy Correa was able to managed the cocaine drug making laboratories in Nariño, Cauca and Valle de Cauca in Colombia.
Eric Van Dorian López Agudelo, was an active special agent with the Colombian Department of Security Administration (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS) compatibile to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He allegedly provided information to the Pilot Drug Cartel in exchange for money, according to the U.S. federal indictment.
Gómez was able to recruit other pilots and the drug smuggling air routes extended to Honduras, Nicaragua Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panamá, Venezuela, Africa and Europe. Moya was in the process of establishing various businesses in Florida and handled the alteration of flight plans and provided false documents for the airplanes.
Authorities confiscated between 15-25 private planes including 5 which were registered to Rodríguez Monsalve who travelled to Panamá and Miami frequently, where she owned luxury apartments.
Rodríguez Monsalve is the widow of Francisco Iván Cifuentes Villa aka "El Pancho" who supplied the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico with 5-6 tons of cocaine weekly before he was killed on April 23, 2007. His wife inherited the operation until last week when the Colombian National Police and the U.S. DEA took the suspects into custody without incident, after a two year investigation.
The coordinated undercover law enforcement deployment of 35 units with more than 80 special agents, Texas law enforcement and the Colombian National Police (CNP) and involving at least ten countries operated as "Operation Frontiers" or "Operation No Fly Zone" in a foreign country, is the largest cocaine drug bust within the last decade, according to General Óscar Adolfo Naranjo Trujillo of the CNP. It was a model operation and other countries should following similar law enforcement operations, added Naranjo Trujillo.
Operation Frontiers included training a dozen beautiful, attractive and sexy looking undercover police women who managed to infiltrated the Pilot Cartel and gather intelligence for more than six months. The women frequent a nightclub in Colombia where the members of the Pilot Cartel hangout. They were able to befriend, seduce and get air flight schedules of cocaine shipments from the pilots. The police women have becomed known as "Las Bella Mujeres con Placas, the Pretty Women with a Badge" all over Latin America, since the news broke last week about their success in shuting down one of the largest air drug smuggling operations within ten countries including Africa and Europe.
The U.S. government and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of the State of Texas were initially involved when one of the private planes used in the Pilot Drug Cartel smuggling operation was traced back to where it was purchased in Beaumont, Texas. Also, when an informant gave authorities a cell phone number from a pilot in August 2007. The pilot later crashed his plane with a cargo of cocaine and killed himself. When authorities traced phone calls from his cell phone, they discovered that Rodríguez Monsalve had frequently called the pilot. Authorities then realized that Rodríguez Monsalve had taken over her late husband's drug trafficking operations. Her phone was wiretapped and authorities heard conversations of shipments and quantities between pilots and her. Pilots phones were also wiretapped and it was discovered that Civil Air officials were collaborating with the smugglers and provided them with permits and fight plans.
"We cannot sit back and allow these drug trafficking organizations, wherever they are located, to transport tons of cocaine to the United States, with impunity," said U.S. Attorney Bales. "In this operation, the agents, both American and Colombian, are literally reaching across hemispheres to strike a blow against a criminal organization that is a vital lifeline to several Mexican drug cartels. We are proud to be part of what we believe to be an historical effort in the war on drugs."
"Operation ‘No Fly Zone’ represents an unprecedented level of international law enforcement cooperation between the Colombian National Police and North Texas law enforcement agencies,” said James L. Capra, Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “The complete dismantlement of this criminal organization based in Colombia will severely impact the ability of drug traffickers to transport cocaine from the jungles of Colombia, via Central America and Mexico, to the United States using small aircraft.”
Terri K. Wyatt, Special Agent/PIO says, the case is being investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas) HIDTA Group 1 and the Colombian National Police. HIDTA Group 1 consists of: the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Coppell Police Department, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, the Dallas Police Department, the Ellis County Sheriff's Office, the Internal Revenue Service, the Irving Police Department, the Richardson Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Waxahachie Police Department. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather Rattan and Camelia Lopez.
Provisional arrest warrants, the legal instruments which triggered the enforcement actions and arrests in Colombia, were prepared with the assistance of the DOJ Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs in Washington D.C., assistance of the DOJ Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs in Washington D.C.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
For an online copy of the unsealed February 5, 2010 federal indictment by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Eastern District Court of Texas is posted at ketknbc.com: http://bit.ly/aVupfV
Related Pilot Drug Cartel articles:
Historic drug bust: U.S. DEA and Colombian National Police stop air shipments of 5-6 tons of cocaine weekly to 10 countries http://bit.ly/awsorH
Colombian undercover police women trained by U.S. DEA instrumental in Pilot Cartel drug bust effecting six drug cartels http://bit.ly/9b57zl
Connected by MOTOBLUR™ on T-Mobile
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