A judge in New York on Monday sentenced Daniel Rendón-Herrera, former head of the Clan del Golfo and who was one of the most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia, to 35 years in prison.
Judge Dora Irizarry, of the federal court in Brooklyn, said that the Colombian deserves to serve the harsh sentence requested by the prosecution due to the lives lost due to his drug trafficking activity.
“You have to think of all those people who will never see their loved ones, who were killed in terrible ways,” the judge said at the end of a nearly two-hour court session.
Rendon-Herrera, 56, pleaded guilty in November to providing support to a designated terrorist organization and running an illicit enterprise on an ongoing basis in connection with drug trafficking. For this last charge, Judge Irizarry imposed 35 years in prison, while for the first charge it was 15 years; however, both statements are concurrent.
Also known as “Don Mario”, the Colombian was extradited to the United States in April 2018.
According to US authorities, Rendón-Herrera was a leader in the 1990s of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which was designated by the United States as a terrorist organization in 2001. The paramilitary organization imposed “taxes” on cocaine trafficked to through areas controlled by the AUC and acted with violence, carrying out assassinations and kidnappings.
According to the prosecution, when many members of the organization left it as part of a peace process in 2006, Rendón-Herrera redesigned the group and turned it into Los Urabeños, also known as Clan Usuga or Clan del Golfo.
With white hair and dressed in a light green prison uniform, Rendón-Herrera spoke in court on Monday, before Irizarry issued his sentence, and apologized to “American society for the damage caused by my actions.” .
He said that although he will no longer be released due to the many sentences he faces in Colombia, “I would like to return to my country, where I have my family, my grandchildren, my children.”
“I have experienced difficult times in prison, I ask you to consider my age, my health problems, to forgive me for the acts committed,” Rendón-Herrera told the judge.
Prosecutors in the case described him at the hearing as a criminal who created one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.
“The Urabeños employed hit men who carried out acts of violence including assassinations, assaults, kidnappings, and bombings to collect drug debts, maintain discipline, expand territory for drug trafficking, and promote the prestige, reputation, and position of the organization, ” wrote the US Department of Justice in a statement in 2021.
Rendón-Herrera was captured in April 2009 in an area of the department of Antioquia after more than 10 months of intelligence operations. At the time, prosecutors said, Rendón-Herrera ran 16 “blocs” or territories around Colombia and thousands of paramilitary guerrillas. In pleading guilty, the Colombian admitted responsibility for having trafficked at least 73,645 kilos of cocaine.
The 13 and a half years that Rendón-Herrera has spent in jail, in Colombia and the United States, will count towards serving Monday’s sentence, Irizarry said, although the final decision on that rests with the US Bureau of Prisons.
The judge is expected to preside over a court hearing on Tuesday in the case of Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, better known as Otoniel, who took the reins of the Clan del Golfo after Rendón-Herrera. Úsuga David was the leader of the organization between 2012 and until his capture in October 2021.
In addition to jail time, the court asked Rendon-Herrera to pay $45 million.
His lawyer, César de Castro, said at the beginning of the hearing that the Colombian’s sentence should be 15 years since he faces many sentences in Colombia and if he spends too much time in the United States, he will not comply with the time he must serve in his country. native.
“Should he die in an American prison?” asked the lawyer.
At the end of the hearing Rendón-Herrera waved goodbye to two relatives who had come to court.
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