One of Columbia’s last drug kingpins — who reigned over a 400-ton-a-year cocaine empire and funneled cash to terror groups — was hauled into a New York City courtroom Wednesday.
Daniel Barrera, 44, who authorities say was one of the largest cocaine traffickers in history, was extradited to the U.S. on Tuesday.
He lorded over a “behemoth cocaine organization” and “operated at the center of a truly evil web spun between his narcotics trafficking organization and two violent and sworn enemy terrorist organizations,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Barrera provided money to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or UAC, Bharara said.
“This was truly cocaine with blood in its background,” he said.
Prosecutors say they have developed a mountain of evidence against the cosmetically enhanced drug lord, who allegedly had several plastic surgeries and tried to burn off his fingerprints with acid to mask his identity.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Dabbs told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Wednesday that authorities had “reports and photographs” documenting the seizures of Barrera’s cocaine off the coast of Florida and in Venezuela.
Daniel ‘Loco’ Barrera tried to burn off his fingerprints with acid to mask his identiy. The Colombian cocaine kingpin has finally been hauled into a U.S. federal court in New York.
Barrera, dressed in a white polo shirt and gray jeans, betrayed no emotion as Dabbs referenced his once-sprawling empire.
In fact, the kingpin known as “The Madman” acted like a perfect gentlemen in court, speaking softly and politely to Hellerstein.
“Yes, your honor,” he said through a Spanish interpreter when asked if he understood the charges.
Barrera pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to import narcotics, and his lawyer did not ask for bail.
“They are very serious charges,” lawyer Ruben Oliva said outside the courthouse. “He is being accused of very serious crimes.”
Agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Barrera in Venezuela on Sept. 18, 2012. Venezuelan authorities seized houses, ranches, a yacht, apartments and 48 cars belonging to Barrera, officials said.
Selling four hundred tons of cocaine a year, Daniel Barrera was one of the largest traffickers of the drug in history, U.S. authorities say.
He was returned to Colombia before getting extradited to New York.
Barrera is accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars as he processed about 400 tons of raw cocaine into cocaine powder each year since 1998.
Authorities say Barrera manufactured the cocaine at laboratories he operated in a remote section of Colombia controlled by the UAC.
At the same time, he was buying the raw cocaine base from the rival FARC terror group, prosecutors say.
“If any one case epitomizes the nexus between terrorism and drug trafficking and the destructive impact on Colombian society, this is it; not to mention the crime and suffering cocaine addiction has fueled on the demand-side of the equation in the streets of New York,” said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has called Barrera “the last of the great capos.”
If convicted, Barrera faces up to life in prison.
Barrera also faces charges in federal court in Miami, his next stop after his New York cases are completed.
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