US officials working with Colombian authorities said today they had arrested eight alleged drug traffickers and seized more than $100 million worth of cocaine.
The arrests followed a four-year investigation that led to the seizure of 2,900 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $100 million at wholesale, US attorney Carmen Ortiz said at a Boston press conference.
Officials said the smugglers, led by Leyvan Alvarez-Bastidas, paid Philippine merchant seamen to smuggle cocaine into New Orleans, where it was distributed throughout the United States.
Alvarez-Bastidas and four other alleged drug traffickers, Hector Javier Castro-Meza, Gustavo Castro-Caicedo, Fidel Alberto Ruales-Vallejo and May Adolfo Morcillo-Molina, who were arrested in Colombia, were brought to Boston last night.
Three other suspects, Luis Alberto Zapata-Sanchez, Bernardo Alberto Merino-Cuaran and Alex Castro-Cortes are in Colombian custody, awaiting extradition.
Boston-based agents for the Drug Enforcement Agency and Internal Revenue Service cracked the ring by tracking money allegedly laundered by the suspects.
"Normally in these kinds of investigations we typically find the drug and follow the drug trail to the money. Here the complete opposite happened," Ms Ortiz said.
North America is the largest consumer in the $88 billion global cocaine trade, according to United Nations data.
Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine. Drug cartels ship hundreds of tons of the drug to the United States every year.
Over the past two decades Colombian drug gangs have taken a smaller role in transporting cocaine to the United States, leaving that mostly to larger Mexican drug gangs.
Reuters