A trafficker received a 24-year prison sentence on Tuesday, alongside two others, for a plot to bring over a ton of cocaine into the U.S. from Colombia, as per federal authorities. Oscar Henao-Montoya admitted guilt to conspiring to transport cocaine after the Drug Enforcement Administration, with the help of confidential informants, intervened to dismantle the operation. He bragged about his control over Colombian labs capable of producing over a ton of cocaine during meetings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Henao-Montoya, aged 58, is the younger sibling of a former member of the Norte del Valle Cartel, a group that gained significance in the 1990s and once managed roughly half of the cocaine entering the U.S. The DEA guided its informants in meetings, including some that were recorded, with Henao-Montoya and others. Prosecutors revealed that in April 2021, undercover agents from the Colombian National Police successfully bought a $16,000 “sample” of cocaine at Henao-Montoya’s direction, intended as a trial for the larger cocaine shipments he planned to smuggle unlawfully. Legal documents indicate that while Henao-Montoya initially pleaded not guilty to numerous felony charges in 2023, he later changed his plea during an August hearing, admitting guilt to a reduced charge of conspiring to import more than 500 grams of cocaine. Two accomplices were sentenced in December after also confessing to one count of conspiring to import cocaine.
