Sentencing deal in drug bust nets 5-year jail terms for two

During the hearing on the application of precautionary measures, the Prosecutor’s Office reached a sentence agreement with two of the 41 arrested in Operation Fuego.

  Doctor Virgilio Córdoba and Roberto Henry, the latter being linked to the criminal network through allegedly sustained wiretaps with members of the organization will spend five years behind bars for the crimes of corruption of a public official and conspiracy to commit drug-related crimes.

On Friday it is expected that the defense attorneys will present their objections to the requests for preventive detention made by the Prosecutor’s Office for the rest of those investigated.

According to the investigation initiated in 2019, the members of the criminal network controlled the itineraries of the containers that entered the port of Cristóbal, in the province of Colón, to send drugs to Europe.

The network allegedly had the collaboration of port employees, lawyers, and a member of the National Police who alerted them about checkpoints and operations.