Trafficker pleads guilty for attempted arms export to Colombia

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.