Trafficker pleads guilty for attempted arms export to Colombia
A Colombian arms trafficker pled guilty in a federal court in Florida to charges that he attempted to export arms to a Colombian paramilitary group with links to the narcotics trade.
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency said Guillermo Cardoso-Arias, 54, pled guilty Jan. 13 to the charges before the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The two-count indictment alleged Cardoso-Arias attempted to export about 200 AK-47 assault rifles without an export license. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison per count.
U.S. law enforcement agents taped conversations with Cardoso-Arias in which he said he was buying the weapons on behalf of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group, engaged in fighting the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The U.S. government has designated both AUC and FARC as large-scale narcotics traffickers under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The law is specifically designed to deny any business that could support narcotics traffickers.
Trafficker pleads guilty for attempted arms export to Colombia
