A former high-ranking member of the Western Bloc of the Gulf Clan (CDG), a Colombian paramilitary and drug trafficking organization, was sentenced this Tuesday to 12.5 years in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine to the United States, the Department of Justice reported.
Aimer Alberto Alvarán Posada, 52 years old and of Colombian nationality, was convicted in a federal court in Florida, after pleading guilty last year to the crime of conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
According to court documents, Alvarán Posada conspired in 2018 with other members of the CDG to produce 500 kilograms of cocaine destined for Mexican buyers, knowing that the drug was destined for the United States.
Specifically, the Colombian obtained the approval of the commander of the Northern Block of the CDG - where the cocaine transaction would take place - and chaired several meetings to coordinate said operation, from which approximately 363 kilograms of the drug were seized.
The investigation also determined that while the conspiracy was being carried out, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, former leader of the CDG who is serving a sentence for drug trafficking in the United States, informed Alvarán Posada that his appointment as commander of the Western Block of the criminal organization was being considered.
American justice assumes that this promotion would have given him control over a wide network of subordinates, the authority to set cocaine prices and the responsibility of deciding who could produce and transport cocaine in its territory.
However, Alvarán Posada was arrested in 2021 on charges of crimes committed in 2018 and later extradited.
The DOJ highlighted in a statement that the CDG was designated last December by the US Executive as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
