Extradited Colombian Entrepreneur Convicted in Miami of Conspiracy to Distribute Thousands of Kilograms of Cartel Cocaine for Import to the United States | Cannabis Law Report | How to order Skittles Moonrock online

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MIAMI – A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a guilty verdict against defendant Neder Valencia Julio for a multi-year conspiracy to distribute thousands of kilograms of cocaine, with knowledge that the cocaine would be unlawfully imported into the United States.

Based on the evidence at trial, Valencia owned several businesses along the coastal gulf of Colombia near the Caribbean Sea, including a resort-style hotel, an apartment complex, a boat transport business, and a fleet of speedboats. These businesses were all located in territory controlled by the Clan del Golfo (CDG), a Colombian paramilitary group, racketeering organization, and armed drug trafficking cartel. The CDG cartel was a highly organized criminal group that trafficked its own cocaine, selling to partners in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, who would then sell the cocaine to Mexican cartels for eventual transport across the border of the United States. The CDG cartel also charged a per-kilogram tax for any other drug trafficking groups that moved cocaine through CDG territory in Colombia and Panama. In exchange for the payment of this tax, CDG would provide storage, security, and inventorying of the cocaine until the traffickers were ready to dispatch the cocaine for shipment.

On May 14, 2018, a Colombian military plane began tracking a speedboat that left from this region and was moving north along a known drug trafficking corridor. As the boat crossed into Panama’s territorial waters, a patrol boat from Servicio Nacional Aeronaval de Panamá (SENAN) was able to locate and begin pursuit of the speedboat. The speedboat crew tossed its cargo overboard and turned back towards Colombia. The crew escaped and the empty boat was seized by Colombian law enforcement. However, the SENAN patrol boat was able to follow the speedboat’s wake and recover 626 kilograms of bundled cocaine still afloat along its path.

Valencia provided the speedboat, organized and hired the crew, and met with CDG cartel leadership to plan and coordinate this May 2018 shipment of 1,050 kilograms of CDG cocaine. Valencia was personally present to oversee the loading and dispatch of the cocaine onto his speedboat.

Beyond the May 2018 shipment, Valencia served as a logistics and transportation coordinator for many more thousands of kilograms and millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine shipments, dating back to at least 2011. In 2012, Valencia participated in planning meetings with CDG cartel leadership and representatives of a Honduran narcotrafficking client of CDG, and then provided the boats and crew for a 1200-kilogram shipment of CDG cocaine to Honduras. In 2015, Valencia held the same role in a 1500-kilogram shipment to this same group in Honduras. In 2017, Valencia oversaw the loading and dispatch of a 1000-kilogram shipment from one of his speedboats, piloted by his crew. In February 2018, Valencia again oversaw the loading and dispatch of a 1400-kilogram cartel cocaine shipment from one of his speedboats, piloted by his crew.

Valencia continued to oversee the coordination, logistics, and transportation of cocaine shipments in 2019 and 2020. He was arrested in Colombia in 2021 and subsequently extradited to the United States.

The evidence at trial otherwise reflected that one of the branded stamps on the cocaine bricks from the May 2018 seizure had been linked to the CDG cartel, and that cocaine bricks bearing the same or similar branded markings had been seized in United States territory between 2017 and 2020, including in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Corpus Christi, Texas.

U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal presided over the trial. Valencia faces a maximum term of life imprisonment. The sentencing hearing has been set for September 23, 2025. Judge Singhal will sentence Valencia after a review of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Deanne Reuter of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami Field Division, announced the guilty verdict.

DEA investigated the case, with substantial assistance from law enforcement and armed forces in the Republic of Colombia, including the Fiscalía General de la Nación, the Colombian Navy, and the Republic of Panama, including SENAN. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia provided significant assistance in this matter.  The United States Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Broward Sheriff’s Office also provided valuable support during the proceedings.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc Chattah and Sterling M. Paulson are prosecuting the case.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-CR-20273-AHS.