Colombian Sentenced for Conspiring With FARC to Smuggle Tons of Cocaine to US

A Colombian citizen was sentenced for conspiring, in partnership with the violent Marxist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to traffic tons of cocaine to the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York announced on Aug. 19.

Alberto Alonso Jaramillo Ramirez, 56, conspired with others in association with the FARC to obtain and distribute tons of cocaine to be sold in the United States, said authorities. He negotiated with individuals he believed to be traffickers from a Mexican drug trafficking organization called the Mexican DTO, which sought to establish a supply route from Venezuela to the United States.

However, the individuals were actually confidential informants working under the direction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

During the investigation, conversations were recorded in which Jaramillo agreed to collaborate with the cocaine trafficking plan, using his contacts in Colombia.

At the end of 2021, Jaramillo and his accomplices, in order “to prove their bona fides and establish the quality of their cocaine supply,” sold the informants a five-kilogram sample of cocaine that, according to the prosecution, laboratory tests showed had a purity of between 86.6 percent and 89.1 percent and came from a farm associated with the FARC.

Jaramillo was arrested in February 2022 at the request of the United States and pleaded guilty on March 24, 2025. He was sentenced to 150 months in prison. His accomplices were named as Libia Amanda Palacio Mena and Alvaro Fredy Cordoba Ruiz, both sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The FARC was identified by President George W. Bush as “a significant foreign narcotics trafficker, or drug kingpin” in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

In 2001, the State Department designated the FARC as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997.

In May, a FARC-People’s Army commander and his associate were also charged as high-ranking members of an extensive cocaine manufacturing network, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Iván Jacobo Idrobo Arredondo, 39, also known as “Marlon Vásquez,” and Juan Diego Palta Montero, 26, also known as “Ñeque,” face the following charges: attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to engage in narco-terrorism; conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine for the purpose of illegal importation; conspiracy to possess firearms, machine guns, and destructive devices in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; and distribution of cocaine for illegal importation.

According to the indictment, the organization used profits from drug sales to acquire weapons and finance terrorist activities in Colombia.