An infamous Colombian drug trafficker nicknamed Don Mario has been sentenced to 35 years in the United States, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Last year, Don Mario, whose real calling name is Daniel Rendon Herrera, pleaded guilty in a New York court to running a criminal business and conspiring for a designated terrorist organization called the Gulf Clan.
The Gulf Clan hired “hitmen, who committed various acts of violence, adding murder, assault, kidnapping and assassination to collect drug debts, discipline, control and expand the territory of drugs and publicize the prestige, reputation and position of the organization. ” prosecutors said.
The conviction “marks the end of the criminal career of Rfinishon Herrera,” once “Colombia’s most feared narco-terrorist,” said Breon Peace, U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Rendón Herrera was once the leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, which the U. S. government designated in 2001 as a global terrorist organization.
He admitted in court “to having offered curtains to a designated terrorist organization that brutally killed, kidnapped and tortured drug traffickers and rival civilians,” the U. S. Justice Department said in a statement.
Rendon Herrera also admitted to smuggling more than 80 tons of cocaine from his billion-dollar cocaine empire.
In 2009, when Rendon Herrera was captured by police, he commanded 16 “blocs,” or territories, across Colombia and thousands of armed paramilitaries, prosecutors said.
In addition to her sentence, Judge Doris Irizarry ordered Rendon Herrera, 57, of Antioquia, to pay $45. 7 million in damages.
Earlier this year, Colombia extradited to the United States the alleged leader of the Gulf Clan, whom the country’s top drug lord was wanted before his capture. defaulting former head of the Medellín drug cartel.
The Gulf Clan closed dozens of villages in northern Colombia for 4 days in retaliation for extradition.