BOSTON — A Lowell man admitted to his involvement in a cocaine conspiracy tied to a felony group based mostly in Colombia that has historic ties to the infamous Medellín Cartel and its now deceased chief Pablo Escobar.
Miguel Colindres, 61, pleaded responsible in federal court docket on Tuesday to conspiring with members of the group, generally known as La Oficina de Envigado, based mostly in Medellín, to distribute 5 kilograms of cocaine, in line with a press launch from U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’s workplace.
A particular agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency acknowledged in a felony criticism filed in federal court docket that the company had been investigating Colindres and co-defendant Juan Pablo Ariasgil, 41, additionally of Lowell, since June 2020, utilizing a confidential informant or “cooperating source.”
The felony criticism states earlier than cooperating with the DEA, the supply had previously been a “large-scale cocaine distributor” in Massachusetts and owed a debt of $750,000 to La Oficina, which allegedly equipped the medicine.
The launch from Rollins’s workplace states La Oficina originated within the Eighties when its members supplied enforcement and assortment providers for the Medellín Cartel, which smuggled in depth quantities of cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. Most just lately, La Oficina is allegedly concerned in worldwide narcotics trafficking, drug debt assortment, cash laundering, extortion and homicide for rent.
During 2019 and 2020, the felony criticism states debt collectors with La Oficina — recognized by Rollins’s workplace as Fabio de Jesus Yepes Sanchez and Mario Zapata Velez — used threats to stress the cooperating supply into paying off the debt.
According to the felony criticism, in June 2020, on the route of DEA brokers, the cooperating supply informed Sanchez and Velez about being in possession of 5 kilograms of cocaine, which the debt collectors instructed must be bought to handle the debt. The felony criticism states Sanchez and Velez instructed the cooperating supply to present the cocaine to their affiliate — recognized as Colindres — “in partial satisfaction of the debt.” The cooperating supply and Colindres then started a dialogue and agreed to fulfill up.
Equipped with surveillance gear supplied by the DEA, the cooperating supply met with Colindres’s affiliate — recognized within the felony criticism as Ariasgil — in Revere on July 15, 2020, handy over the cocaine. Following the transaction, Ariasgil was taken into custody by authorities.
The similar day, investigators executed a search warrant at Colindres’s residence at 952 Bridge St. in Lowell, the place the 61-year-old was taken into custody.
Colindres and Ariasgil have been each charged in federal court docket with conspiracy to own with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or extra of cocaine
Ariasgil has since been sentenced to 4 years in jail and 4 years of supervised launch, in line with Rollins’s workplace.
Colindres is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV on April 24. According to Rollins’s workplace, the cost of conspiracy to own with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or extra of cocaine features a potential minimal sentence of 10 years and as much as life in jail.
Colindres’s legal professional, Scott Lopez, declined to remark in regards to the case.
The instances in opposition to Sanchez and Velez are pending in federal court docket.
Assistance within the investigation was supplied by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department; Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston; and the federal government of Colombia.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Graber and Jared Dolan of Rollins’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
Follow Aaron Curtis on Twitter @aselahcurtis
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
