WASHINGTON D.C.
Following a four-week trial, leaders of the Guatemala-based Lorenzana Drug Trafficking Organization were convicted of importing multi-tons of cocaine into the U.S, officials announced today.
“For well over a decade, the defendants led a major Central American drug trafficking organization responsible for importing tons of cocaine into the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. “This verdict sends a powerful message that the United States and its partners will pursue and obtain justice against international drug traffickers.”
Drug organizaton leaders Eliu Elixander Lorenzana-Cordon, 43, and Waldemar Lorenzana-Cordon, 49, were each convicted on one count of conspiring to unlawfully import and distribute cocaine into the United States.
The defendants were arrested in Guatemala after their indictment on this conspiracy charge and then extradited to the United States.
According to evidence presented at trial, the Lorenzana-Cordons were leaders of an international drug trafficking organization with close ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Evidence at trial demonstrated that between 1996 and 2009, the defendants and their co-conspirators received, stored and distributed multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia at their properties in Zacapa, Guatemala, for importation into Mexico and then ultimately into the United States.
On April 27, 2010, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control designated both defendants as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act due to their significant roles in international narcotics trafficking and their ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, according to evidence presented at trial.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s 959/Bilateral Investigations Unit and Guatemala City Country Office led the investigation, which was part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.