Colombian National Sentenced to Federal Prison for East Texas Drug Trafficking

BEAUMONT, Texas – A 35-year-old Colombian national has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas announced U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown today.

Esmir Colorado-Cuero pleaded guilty on Oct. 22, 2018, to conspiracy to distribute heroin, conspiracy to money launder, and illegal reentry by a previously removed alien. Colorado-Cuero was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Marcia Crone.

According to information presented in court, in January 2016, law enforcement officers seized a kilogram of heroin moving through Beaumont, Texas for delivery in Louisiana. Around the same time, two bulk cash seizures of over $100,000 each, were made in the Houston area. An investigation by law enforcement agents into these events identified Colorado-Cuero’s connection to a large scale heroin trafficking and money laundering conspiracy moving drugs and cash from Houston through the Eastern District of Texas. Further investigation revealed Colorado-Cuero was a Colombian national and had been apprehended and deported from the United States on at least two prior occasions.

This case is the result of an extensive joint investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply. Six other defendants have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the conspiracies.

This case was investigated by the DEA Houston Field Division; DEA Miami Field Division; Houston Police Department; Beaumont Police Department; Department of Homeland Security-Enforcement Removal Operations-Beaumont; Homeland Security Investigations-Houston; and Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab Tyler and Austin. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randall L. Fluke and John Craft and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Tommy Coleman.

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