Criminal Defense News

U.S. Joins with Brazil, Panama, Colombia To Break Up Drug Ring

Washington -- U.S. authorities, working in partnership with law enforcement agencies in Latin America, have broken up an international drug ring responsible for smuggling more than 13,605 kilograms of cocaine per month from Colombia to the United States and Europe, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In a May 17 statement, the DEA said a three-year investigation, dubbed "Operation Twin Oceans," netted more than 100 arrests, the seizure of 47,555 kilograms of cocaine and nearly $70 million in assets. The DEA said it worked with a coalition spearheaded by the Brazilian federal police, Panama's judicial police and Colombia's national police to break up what was known as the Pablo Rayo-Montano drug trafficking organization.  The DEA also credited law enforcement agencies in Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and Venezuela with helping to achieve arrests in the case.

As part of Operation Twin Oceans, three islands off the coast of Panama owned by the Rayo-Montano organization were seized.  Additional seizures also were made of yachts, fishing trawlers, art galleries, the largest fishing and boating store in Panama and other commercial properties and businesses owned by the Rayo-Montano group. The DEA said Pablo Rayo-Montano was the commander and controller of a criminal organization that used highly sophisticated methods to coordinate the movement of cocaine to the United States and Europe, while shipping illegal drug proceeds back to Colombia. The United States put Rayo-Montano on its Consolidated Priority Organization Target list in October 2005.  That list identifies the leaders of the most significant international drug-trafficking organizations threatening the United States. Rayo-Montano was arrested May 16 at his residence in Brazil by the Brazilian federal police, the DEA said.  It added that Rayo-Montano started as a simple drug transporter in Buenaventura, Colombia, almost 20 years ago and ultimately became head of a worldwide criminal cartel.

Rayo-Montano masterminded a cocaine trafficking hierarchy that included production, international transportation/smuggling and wholesale distribution of drugs and money laundering, said the DEA. DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said the Rayo-Montano organization had "its own private, rogue navy to run a drug business that was nearly as sophisticated as a small nation.  As well-equipped and complex as this enterprise was, it was a matter of time before law enforcement caught on, and now Rayo-Montano's decadent, drug-funded lifestyle has caught up with him.  This morning, his real estate holdings went from three islands to one jail cell."The DEA said that if convicted, the defendants in the case face sentences ranging from a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison to up to life imprisonment.

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