Jury convicts three men of trafficking $28 million of cocaine
SAN DIEGO – Three South American men were convicted by a federal jury late yesterday of trafficking approximately 1,230 kilograms (2,706 pounds) of cocaine worth more than $28 million on the high seas. The verdict came after a weeklong trial before U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez.
“These traffickers attempted to smuggle more than one ton of cocaine into the United States, which would have had a devastating impact on our communities,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Karen Flowers. “Due to the collaborative efforts of the Coast Guard and DEA, we were able to stop these traffickers and keep these deadly drugs out of our communities.”
At trial, the government proved that on Dec. 31, 2017, a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter responded to a report of a suspicious vessel traveling in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, approximately 100 nautical miles north of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. The Coast Guard Cutter Stratton launched a helicopter and two small boats to intercept the vessel.
As the helicopter closed in, the defendants – Adrian Andres Cortez-Quinonez, Segundo Marcial Dominguez-Caicedo and Victor Gaspar-Chichande – stopped their go-fast vessel to avoid detection. But as the helicopter circled the vessel, the defendants attempted to evade the helicopter.
The defendants eventually brought their vessel to a stop when they could not outrun the Coast Guard helicopter and then began jettisoning dozens of bails of cocaine overboard. They took off again, but a U.S. Coast Guard marksman onboard the helicopter disabled the fleeing vessel’s engines with precision. The Coast Guard detained the defendants and recovered the jettisoned cocaine. After the defendants were transported to the United States, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration continued the investigation.
# # #
