DEA, U.S. Attorneys Bring Down Colombian Narcotics Kingpin

This past summer, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), along with U.S. Attorneys out of Brooklyn, Miami, and Manhattan recently announced the extradition of a Columbian narcotics kingpin who, along with at least two Columbian terrorist organizations, manufactured and distributed upwards of 400 tons of cocaine each year.

According to the DEA, Daniel Barrera (also known as “Loco”), a citizen of Columbia, was extradited for his role in laundering tens of millions of dollars in proceeds through narcotics trafficking. Following his prosecution in New York, he will be arraigned in the Southern District of Florida.

The extradition of Barrera was a long time in the making, as it was back in March 2010 that the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control labeled Barrera as a “special designated narcotics trafficker.” He was subsequently arrested in September 2012 in Venezuela and sent to Columbia. It was there that the U.S. sought to extradite him as part of a DEA program called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF).

The OCDETF program was established to dismantle some of the largest and most serious weapons trafficking, money laundering, and drug trafficking organizations responsible for much of the nation’s illegal drug supply.

The DEA called Barrera one of the most “prolific drug traffickers of the past twenty years,” thanks to his involvement with two separate terrorist organizations. His involvement resulted in the manufacture of more than 400 tons of cocaine each year. It was expected that his involvement in drug manufacture and distribution dates back more than a decade.

Barrera purchased raw cocaine from the terrorist organization FARC, which he then processed in laboratories controlled by an equally serious terrorist organization, AUC. Barrera apparently ran this cocaine manufacturing and trafficking operation since 1998.

Further, it is suspected that his involvement with these terrorist organizations resulted in a considerable amount of death and destruction throughout Columbia. His arrest was a direct result of strong, international cooperation with Columbian authorities, reports the DEA.

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