Colombian drug kingpin pleads guilty to money laundering

NEW YORK — The leader of a Colombian cocaine trafficking ring pleaded guilty Thursday to money laundering charges. The guilty plea is a result of an international law enforcement operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Daniel Barrera Barrera, aka Loco, 44, was responsible for manufacturing hundreds of tons of cocaine annually in Colombia, trafficking it to various parts of the world, including the United States, and laundering tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from that narcotics trafficking activity. In March 2010, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Barrera as a "Special Designated Narcotics Trafficker," pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

On Sept. 18, 2013, Barrera was arrested in Venezuela. Thereafter, he was sent to Colombia, from where the United States sought his extradition to the United States. The extradition of Barrera is the result of an ongoing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation led by the DEA and HSI. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation's illegal drug supply.

Since 1998, Barrera has run a cocaine manufacturing and trafficking syndicate that processed approximately 30,000 kilograms of raw cocaine base each month into about the same amount of cocaine powder – in total, up to approximately 400 tons of cocaine annually. Barrera purchased the raw cocaine base or paste from the designated terrorist group, the FARC, which has been the world's largest supplier of cocaine and which has engaged in bombings, massacres, kidnappings and other acts of violence within Colombia.

Barrera converted the raw cocaine into powder at laboratories he owned and operated in an area of Colombia controlled by the since demobilized terrorist group, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). For years, the AUC's main political objective was to defeat the FARC in armed conflict, and it financed its terrorist activities through the proceeds of cocaine trafficking in AUC-controlled regions of Colombia.

Although Barrera purchased raw materials for cocaine production from the FARC, he was able to maintain his network of cocaine-processing laboratories in AUC-controlled territory, in part by paying monthly taxes to the AUC. The fees Barrera paid to the AUC also allowed him to safely move the processed cocaine through and out of Colombia, into locations on four continents – including into the U.S. Barrera reaped tens of millions of dollars of profits from cocaine trafficking, which he laundered through illicit means. The FARC and the AUC are both designated by the U.S. Department of State as foreign terrorist organizations.

Barrera is charged in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute cocaine knowing that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States. On those counts, Barrera faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Barrera faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the money laundering charges.

The investigation was completed under the auspices of the OCDETF, working in cooperation with HSI New York's El Dorado Task Force, the DEA's Bogota Country Office, the DEA's Caracas Country Office, the DEA's Miami Field Division, the DEA's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force – which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, the New York City Police Department, and the New York State Police – as well as HSI Bogota. The Colombian National Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs also provided considerable assistance.