18 January 2005
Colombian Defendant Pleads Guilty on Attempting to Export Arms
Weapons were to be exported to Colombian paramilitaries, United States Says
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A Colombian arms trafficker has pleaded guilty in a federal court in Florida to charges that he attempted to export arms to a Colombian paramilitary group, announced the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency (ICE).
In a January 14 statement, ICE said the defendant, Guillermo Cardoso-Arias, 54, pleaded guilty the previous day before a U.S. District Court judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The agency said Cardoso-Arias pleaded guilty to a two-count indictment that alleged he had knowingly engaged and attempted to engage in the business of brokering the export of 200 AK-47 assault rifles and attempted to export those rifles without a license. The defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison per count, said the ICE, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. law enforcement agents taped conversations with Cardoso-Arias in which he said he was purchasing the rifles on behalf of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group. The defendant said the weapons would be used to fight the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
According to ICE, the defendant added that there was a need for so many AK-47s because they are lighter and easier to handle than other weapons when climbing the mountains of Colombia. Both the AUC and FARC have been designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations.
The United States also has designated the two groups as significant foreign narcotics traffickers under the U.S. Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The Kingpin Act is designed to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system, as well as block them from all trade and transactions involving U.S. companies and individuals.
The Kingpin Act authorizes the U.S. president to take these actions when it is determined that a foreign narcotics trafficker presents a threat to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States.
In a separate action involving the Kingpin Act, ICE announced January 13 that its agents converged on a multi-million-dollar home in San Diego, California, to serve notice that the owners' assets were being frozen under the provisions of that law.
ICE alleged the owners used currency exchange houses as fronts to launder U.S. currency earned by the Arellano Felix drug cartel of Mexico through its narcotics sales in the United States. According to ICE agents, the drug proceeds were then smuggled back into Mexico.
The agency said Ivonne Soto Vega and Jose Manuel Ruelas Martinez led the money-laundering scheme. Both are presently in the custody of Mexican authorities awaiting trial on charges stemming from their involvement with the Arellano Felix cartel.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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