A New Look at the Hydra of Organized Crime and Terror Organizations
By Douglas Farah
The DEA and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York have unveiled a new indictment for drug trafficking that shows just how truly transnational and intertwined with terrorists, aircraft merchants, and little-scrutinized company registries these groups have become.
The case centers on Jesus Eduardo Valencia-Arbelaez, aka "Padre," aka "Pat," who
was extradited from Romania to stand trial for drug trafficking and money laundering. I think these two paragraphs sums up the huge challenges faced with these organizations that have now grown tentacles around the world. Plotting this on a map would help give the true dimensions of the enterprise.
Valencia-Arbelaez was a leader of a sophisticated international cocaine
trafficking organization (the Organization) based in Colombia and Venezuela
that operated worldwide, including in Bolivia, Spain, Holland, Sierra Leone,
Guinea Conakry, Mauritania, Mali, Cyprus, and the United States.
Beginning in September 2007, members of the Organization sought to purchase a cargo airplane for the purpose of transporting metric tons of cocaine from Venezuela to West Africa. Between September 2007 and March 2009, Manuel
Silva-Jaramillo, a member of the Organization arrested earlier this year,
conducted meetings in connection with the Organization's efforts to acquire
the airplane in, among other places, Madrid, New York and Virginia.
Silva-Jaramillo arranged to finance the purchase of the airplane through a
corporation based in Cyprus and to register it in Sierra Leone.
It would be incorrect to assume the Organization has an organic structure in each of the countries named. Rather, it has carved out important links to existing criminal organizations there, and have key operatives in the country or region to keep an eye on the operations and collect or pay money, as necessary. My full blog is here.
