NEW YORK — Erickson Vargas Cardona, a/k/a “Sebas,” was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for conspiring to traffic in cocaine and using a semiautomatic assault weapon in furtherance of the cocaine trafficking conspiracy. In October 2013, Vargas Cardona was extradited to the United States from Colombia, where he was arrested pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant that was issued in response to a request by the U.S. Government in connection with this case.
From 2000 to August 2012, Vargas Cardona was a member of La Oficina de Envigado (“La Oficina”), a Colombia-based narcotics trafficking organization that began as a debt-collection agency associated with the United Self-Defenses Forces of Colombia (“AUC”), a right-wing paramilitary organization. La Oficina collected debts on behalf of narcotics traffickers, invested in narcotics shipments, and eventually began producing cocaine independently. La Oficina distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to locations worldwide, including the United States. In addition, La Oficina engaged in the systematic bribery of Colombian officials.
As a member of La Oficina, Vargas Cardona, among other things, worked as a sicario, or assassin, engaged in debt collection activities, and established a cocaine laboratory. In 2009, Vargas Cardona assumed control of La Oficina. At the time of Vargas Cardona’s arrest by Colombian authorities on August 8, 2012, he was found at a property that was used to store an arsenal of weapons and explosives. Colombian authorities recovered, among other things, 69 bars of C4 explosive, over 190 electrical detonators, more than 2,900 manual detonators, one rocket-propelled grenade launcher, one M-60 machine gun, nine submachine guns, over 50 hand grenades, 28 rifles, nine silencers, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
In addition to his prison term, Vargas Cardona, 42, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.
