Colombian man pleads guilty to federal drug and firearms trafficking charges
A Colombian man pleaded guilty to federal drug smuggling and firearms trafficking charges, including nearly 62 pounds of cocaine, in Los Angeles on Monday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in LA said Jorge Eliécer Luque Monsalve had ties to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People's Army (FARC-EP), which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Luque pleaded guilty to several conspiracy drug smuggling and firearms trafficking charges, and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of life imprisonment.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Luque admitted to smuggling 61.7 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. between March 2023 and March 2024. In his plea agreement, he also said that he traded cocaine for firearms on behalf of the FARC-EP. Federal prosecutors said he used 46.3 pounds of cocaine to buy AK-47 rifles, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.
The Department of Justice said the FARC-EP is a splinter of the larger FARC terrorist group that emerged after the rejected peace agreement between the group and the Colombian government in 2016.
"FARC-EP is Colombia's most powerful and violent dissident group and has continued to carry out criminal acts, including assassinations, extortion, hostage-takings, and armed assaults," federal prosecutors wrote in their news release.
The Justice Department added that FARC-EP has attacked military targets as well as Colombian citizens and U.S. military personnel in the area. The group controls the production of roughly 70% of the cocaine in the nation, according to federal prosecutors.
