Colombian 'Prince of Submersibles' gets 20 years for smuggling kilos of coke into US with narco-subm
Also: Colombia’s “Prince Of Semi-Submersibles” Sentenced To Over 20 Years In Federal Prison For Smuggling Thousands Of Kilograms Of Cocaine (U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida)
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Source: USA Today
Colombian 'Prince of Submersibles' gets 20 years for smuggling kilos of coke into US with narco-submarines
Michael James
USA TODAY
Published 11:15 p.m. ET May 8, 2023 | Updated 11:55 p.m. ET May 8, 2023
A Colombian drug lord dubbed "the Prince of Semi-Submersibles" was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for operating a fleet of narco-submarines that smuggled thousands of kilos cocaine into the U.S. from South America, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Narco-submarines are makeshift nautical vehicles painted in ocean colors that have one purpose: to smuggle narcotics in hermetically sealed containers across thousands of miles of ocean to illicit ports of call in other countries. The technology has progressed in recent years and has become a significant force in the international drug trade.
Oscar Adriano Quintero Rengifo, 35, also known as “Guatala,” was sentenced to 20 years and 10 months in federal prison for smuggling cocaine in narco-subs, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in court papers.
Quintero Rengifo was part of a transnational criminal organization that smuggled cocaine from South America to Central America for ultimate importation into the United States, according to a federal plea agreement. The organization primarily sent self-propelled semi-submersible vessels to Guatemala, where the cocaine was then smuggled over the Guatemala and Mexican borders, and then into the U.S., prosecutors said.
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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/08/colombian-drug-lord-gets-20-years-for-smuggling-coke-into-us-via-narco-subs/70197761007/
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida
Colombia’s “Prince Of Semi-Submersibles” Sentenced To Over 20 Years In Federal Prison For Smuggling Thousands Of Kilograms Of Cocaine
Monday, May 8, 2023
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida
Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell has sentenced Oscar Adriano Quintero Rengifo, a/k/a “Guatala,” (35, Colombia) to 20 years and 10 months in federal prison for smuggling cocaine into the United States of America. Referred to in the Colombian media as the “Prince of Semi-Submersibles,” Quintero Rengifo was arrested in Colombia at the request of the United States on January 29, 2021, and extradited to the United States on January 26, 2022. He pleaded guilty on May 20, 2022.
According to the plea agreement filed in this case, Quintero Rengifo was part of a transnational criminal organization that smuggled cocaine from South America to Central America for ultimate importation into the United States. The organization primarily sent vessels such as self-propelled semi-submersible vessels to Guatemala, where the cocaine was then smuggled over the Guatemala/Mexican border and then into the United States. A former mayor in Guatemala, who controlled drug routes in northern Guatemala into Mexico, oversaw the smuggling of cocaine to Mexican cartel members. Quintero Rengifo progressed within the group, from organizing smuggling operations, to ultimately investing in shipments and securing investors.
From at least as early as January 2015 through September 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicted at least four vessels, including two semi-submersible vessels, directly linked to the defendant’s organization, and involving more than 13,000 kilograms of cocaine.
This case was investigated by the Panama Express Strike Force, a standing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) comprised of agents and analysts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the U.S. Southern Command's Joint Interagency Task Force South. ...
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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/colombias-prince-semi-submersibles-sentenced-over-20-years-federal-prison-smuggling