Colombian National Sentenced To 150 Months In Prison For Conspiring To Import Tons Of Cocaine Into The United States

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that Alberto Alonso Jaramillo Ramirez was sentenced today to 150 months in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.  JARAMILLO RAMIREZ pled guilty on March 24, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, who imposed today’s sentence.

“Our fight against the flood of dangerous drugs from Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico is about protecting our children and our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.  “Jaramillo Ramirez conspired to traffic massive amounts of cocaine into our country, working with paramilitaries.  New Yorkers want him and others like him put out of business.”

According to court documents and statements made during court proceedings:[1]

JARAMILLO RAMIREZ conspired with his co-defendants and other individuals associated with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (“FARC”)—a violent organization based in Colombia that was dedicated to the overthrow of the Colombian government and responsible for the production and distribution of the majority of the cocaine that eventually reached the U.S.—to source and distribute tons of cocaine destined for the U.S.  JARAMILLO RAMIREZ negotiated with individuals he believed to be narcotics traffickers from a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization (the “Mexican DTO”) seeking to establish a cocaine supply line from Venezuela to the U.S.  These individuals, however, were actually confidential sources working at the direction of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”).

In recorded communications during the investigation, JARAMILLO RAMIREZ agreed to assist the planned cocaine venture through his connections in Colombia.  Specifically, JARAMILLO RAMIREZ agreed to provide connections to sources of supply for ton quantities of cocaine and to other individuals to assist with transportation and security for the planned large-scale cocaine loads.  In December 2021, to prove their bona fides and establish the quality of their cocaine supply, JARAMILLO RAMIREZ and his co-defendants sold the confidential sources a five-kilogram sample of cocaine containing a high level of purity—lab tests demonstrated the cocaine was between 86.6% to 89.1% pure—from a FARC-associated farm outside of Medellín.  JARAMILLO RAMIREZ was arrested in Colombia in February 2022, at the request of the U.S., while finalizing a much larger partnership with the Mexican DTO, which contemplated the shipment of approximately 500 kilograms of cocaine to the U.S. per week.

JARAMILLO RAMIREZ is the third defendant in this case to be sentenced.  On April 11, 2024, Libia Amanda Palacio Mena was sentenced to 168 months in prison, and on April 26, 2024, Alvaro Fredy Cordoba Ruiz was also sentenced to 168 months in prison.

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In addition to the prison term, JARAMILLO RAMIREZ, 56, of Medellín, Colombia, was sentenced to four years of supervised release.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit and Bogotá Country Office, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia for securing the arrest and March 2024 extradition of JARAMILLO RAMIREZ.

This case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas S. Bradley, Kaylan E. Lasky, and Kevin T. Sullivan are in charge of the prosecution.