New York, Jan 13 (EFE).- A federal judge sentenced Venezuelan Carlos Orense Azocar to life in prison plus 30 years on Monday. He was convicted in 2023 on drug trafficking and weapons charges, which the U.S. Attorney's Office links to the government of the South American country. Orense, a 70-year-old known as 'El Gordo', is 'one of the most prolific cocaine traffickers sentenced in this court, responsible for the distribution of hundreds of tons in the United States,' said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, in a statement. The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Terrance C. Cole, stated that his 'close ties with the Venezuelan government gave him the resources to help him evade law enforcement and move massive cocaine shipments throughout the Western Hemisphere.' According to the authorities' investigation, Orense has been engaged in the transportation, receipt, and distribution of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and other locations via air and sea routes since at least 2003. The individual allegedly operated farms with clandestine airstrips in Venezuela, where he stored cocaine, weapons, and ammunition in underground tanks, and loaded the drug onto speedboats that departed from the Venezuelan coast to intermediate points in the Caribbean. To do this, he worked with high-ranking military, police, and intelligence officials from the Venezuelan government, whom he bribed and who provided him with access to military-grade weapons, protection during raids, and border assistance. However, he also collaborated with guerrillas in Colombia and Venezuela, according to the Attorney's Office. The man was tried and convicted in December 2023 on three counts: conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S.; using and carrying automatic firearms to commit that crime, and conspiracy related to weapons, with a minimum sentence of 40 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. According to the U.S. inmate locator, Orense is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (Brooklyn), the same federal prison where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sent. Maduro is accused of narco-terrorism and was captured by the U.S. on January 3 in Caracas.
