Colombian man gets 12 years for conspiring with FARC to traffic cocaine to U.S.

A Colombian man linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla group once responsible for producing much of the cocaine shipped to the United States, has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for conspiring to import the drug, U.S. federal prosecutors announced.

Alberto Alonso Jaramillo Ramirez, 56, of Medellín, Colombia, was sentenced in Manhattan on Tuesday to 150 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiring with FARC associates to traffic large quantities of cocaine bound for the U.S.

Prosecutors said Jaramillo Ramirez negotiated with individuals he believed were linked to a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization to establish a supply route from Venezuela. Those individuals were confidential sources working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In 2021, he and his associates sold a five-kilogram sample of cocaine from a FARC-associated farm outside Medellín, which laboratory tests showed was more than 86% pure.

Jaramillo Ramirez was arrested in Colombia in February 2022, at the request of U.S. authorities, while finalizing plans for a larger partnership that contemplated shipping 500 kilograms of cocaine per week to the United States. He was extradited in March 2024.

In addition to his 150-month prison term, Jaramillo Ramirez was sentenced to four years of supervised release.

In 2024, two of his associates, Libia Amanda Palacio Mena and Alvaro Fredy Cordoba Ruiz, each received 168-month prison terms.

“Jaramillo Ramirez conspired to traffic massive amounts of cocaine into our country, working with paramilitaries,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. “New Yorkers want him and others like him put out of business.”