News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 1996
Surrender
of Last Cali Mafia Leader
Pacho
Herreras surrender to the Colombian National Police is the result
of their untiring efforts to bring the last of the Cali cartel kingpins
before the bar of justice. We congratulate them on yet another success,
stated Thomas A. Constantine, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA). While little known outside of Colombian and American law
enforcement circles, Herrera is one of the most influential and violent
members of the Cali Cartel leadership. His surrender after months of being
on the run is additional proof that these gangsters are not invincible,
Constantine added.
The Government of
Colombia announced the surrender of Helmer Pacho Herrera-
Buitrago on Sunday, September 1, 1996. Herrera is one of the charter members
of the Cali Mafia and was the only remaining Kingpin being
sought by Colombian authorities. Herrera had been the subject of an intensive
manhunt by the Colombian National Police (CNP) and the Drug Enforcement
Administration for the past year.
Pacho
Herrera, considered to be one of the highest ranking members of the Cali
leadership started his criminal career selling relatively small amounts
of cocaine in New York where he was arrested in 1975 and later in 1979.
He is now a major supplier of cocaine for both New York and Southern Florida.
The Colombian charges against Herrera were based upon the seizure of 3,500
hundred kilograms of cocaine in Tarpon Springs, FLA in 1988. The
violence and suffering caused by Herreras criminal activities ranged
from the jungles of Colombia to the neighborhoods of Florida and the streets
of New York. The evidence against Herrera is the result of a long term,
systematic investigation and the hard work of both American and Colombian
law enforcement. This investigation proves once again that a strategic,
long term law enforcement approach is viable and necessary if we are to
successfully engage these international gangsters, Constantine stated.
Herreras organization
is large and well organized. Herrera has multiple sources for cocaine
base from both Peru and Bolivia and an excellent transportation organization
which delivers cocaine base to numerous conversion laboratories in Colombia.
DEA intelligence reports indicate that Herrera has used his close association
with various guerilla groups including M-19 and FARC for the protection
of remote laboratory sites. Herreras organization stages multi-ton
cocaine shipments from clandestine airstrips in Colombia or from North
Coast ports through Central America and the Caribbean to various U.S.
ports of entry. To insure the rapid return of his cocaine distribution
profits to Colombia, Herrera operated one of Cali Cartels the most
profitable money laundering operations in New York.
The arrest
of the leaders of the Cali Mafia is only the beginning. To be meaningful,
they must be stripped of their wealth and sentenced to prison terms commensurate
with the suffering and pain they inflicted. Ideally, they should be extradited
to the United States where they could be judged by the very citizens they
harmed the most, stated Constantine.
Bringing Herrera
to justice in the U.S. is important because of the light sentences and
concessions for surrender and cooperation provided
under the Colombian judicial system, which has been attacked, tampered
with and weakened by drug traffickers and their hired attorneys and legislators,
Constantine added.
For example,
compare the 27 year Federal Penitentiary sentence for Pachos brother
Ramiro who was arrested in New York and convicted of distributing approximately
2000 kilos of cocaine in 1991 with the 5 1/2 year sentence confessed narcotrafficker
and one-time Medillin Cartel Kingpin Juan David Ochoa Vasquez received
after surrendering to Colombian authorities in November 1990, he
added.
According to the
Bogota daily newspaper, El Espectador, at the time of Ochoas release
Colombias Minister of Justice Carlos Medellin characterized the
sentence received by Ochoa as ridiculous.
Francisco Helmer
Pacho Herrera is currently the subject of two indictments
in the Eastern District of New York and was most recently indicted on
drug related charges in Federal District Court in the Southern District
of Florida in June, 1995.
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