Colombian man sentenced in West Texas to additional 2 ½ years for escaping from federal custody in 1994

LUBBOCK, Texas — A Colombian man was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison for escaping from federal custody, which he will serve consecutively to the 70-month federal drug sentence imposed in 1993.

This sentence was announced by U.S Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.  The U.S. Marshal Service (USMS), and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated this case.

Through a diligent investigation, USMS located Juan Carlos Marin-Cardona, 47, a citizen and national of Colombia, living in a foreign county under the name Alexander Rey Marin Cardona. In March 2017, USMS deputies apprehended Marin-Cardona in Houston, Texas, at the airport. He has been in custody since his arrest.

According to plea documents filed in the case, on Jan. 22, 1993, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced Juan Carlos Marin-Cardona to 70 months’ imprisonment for the felony offenses of importing cocaine and possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. Marin-Cardona was later transferred to federal custody at the Eden Detention Center in Eden, Texas.

On Nov. 3, 1994, an Eden maintenance officer went to retrieve Marin-Cardona from the front of the institution, but Marin-Cardona wasn’t there. Eden Detention Center initiated a lockdown and emergency headcount. It was confirmed that Marin-Cardona was not in the Eden Detention Center and had left federal custody without permission.  Marin-Cardona was placed on escape status.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Haag, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.