COLOMBIAN ATTORNEY SENTENCED TO 90 MONTHS IN US FOR DESIGNATING WANTED DRUG TRAFFICKERS AS FORMER FARC TO EVADE EXTRADITION

If you remember the Baruch Vega case, the Department of Justice takes a dim view of private individuals who richly profit from setting up favorable plea agreements with narcotics traffickers that allow them to cheat justice. Colombian attorney MARITZA CLAUDIA FERNANDA LORZA RAMIREZ was recently sentenced by a Federal District Judge in Texas to 90 months' imprisonment for doing just that. Lorza collected nearly $3m, from drug traffickers wanted in Texas and Florida, to corruptly place them upon the official Colombian list identifying them former FARC soldiers, who are exempt from extradition to the US, pursuant to the terms of the Peace Agreement the FARC signed with the Government of Colombia.

The problem is, none of the individuals she named to the FRC list were ever FARC members or soldiers; her actions constituted Obstruction of Justice and Aiding and Abetting. After her extradition from Colombia, Lorza sought to have the charges dismissed, due to extensive delays in her removal after a Colombian court approved that action, but the US trial judge denied her motion. She is presently serving her sentence at FCI Aliceville, which is located in in Alabama.