Pubdate: Sat, 19 Nov 2005
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Akilah Johnson, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

2 ADMIT COCAINE SMUGGLING PLOT

They're Drug Cartel Bosses, Feds Say Two high-ranking members of a
drug cartel pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to import tons of
cocaine into the country, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Cousins Juan Carlos Montoya Sanchez and Carlos Felipe Toro Sanchez
helped lead Colombia's North Valley cartel until their Dec. 29, 2003,
arrest by the Colombian National Police, federal prosecutors said.

Both men pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Cecilia M.
Altonaga in Miami. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 16.

Montoya Sanchez's brother, Diego Montoya Sanchez, allegedly heads the
organization and is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives,
officials said.

"The FBI considers the North Valley Cartel in Colombia one of the
largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations in operation
today," FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Clemens said in a news
release. "It is a top priority of the FBI to dismantle this
organization."

Juan Carlos Montoya Sanchez and Toro Sanchez were extradited from
Colombia this spring. Two years earlier, they were indicted, along
with Diego Montoya Sanchez and others, on multiple drug and money
laundering charges, according to court documents.

North Valley cartel leaders sent more than 1 million pounds of cocaine
from Colombia's Pacific coast to the United States through Mexico
since 1990 using airplanes, go-fast boats and large ocean vessels,
officials said.

According to prosecutors, it was Juan Carlos Montoya Sanchez's job to
oversee the cartel's cocaine laboratories. He supervised workers,
stocked the labs with high-tech equipment and made sure police or
hostile guerrillas didn't raid the facilities.

Toro Sanchez made sure drug shipments got to ports, scouted new routes
and carriers, met with other traffickers and colleted on the cartels'
debts, prosecutors said.

The FBI has seized more than $6 million in Montoya family assets in
South Florida, including two luxury waterfront condominiums and an 80-
foot yacht worth about $3.5 million, prosecutors said.
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