LOS ANGELES
The lead defendant in an international drug trafficking organization was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison, officials stated.
Jaison Dávila Amador conspired to smuggle tens of millions of dollars worth of cocaine by aircraft from Colombia to Mexico for distribution in the United States via the maintenance of secret airstrips and the bribery of air traffic controllers.
U.S. District Judge George H. Wu sentenced Jaison Dávila Amador, 57, a.k.a. “Costeño” and “María Angélica,” of Bogotá, Colombia.
Dávila pleaded guilty on April 20 to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine for unlawful importation. Dávila has been in federal custody since September 2021 after his extradition from Colombia.
Dávila participated in the cocaine trafficking conspiracy from at least 2017 through May 2019. Dávila and his accomplices carried out their plan by maintaining clandestine airstrips in Colombia, where aircraft from Mexico would land to retrieve bulk quantities of cocaine.
To facilitate the scheme, members of the conspiracy bribed air traffic controllers and law enforcement officials to ensure the flights from Mexico could enter Colombian airspace undisturbed.
The conspiracy involved at least two cocaine shipments by aircraft. The first flight successfully departed Colombia in the spring of 2017 with approximately 480 kilograms (1,058 pounds) of cocaine, though the airplane crashed in Central America, killing the pilots on board.
On November 5, 2017, an aircraft bound for Mexico entered Colombian airspace to receive a second cocaine shipment. Still, it was intercepted, forced down by the Colombian Air Force, and then destroyed with machine gun fire.
Near a clandestine airstrip and the airplane’s wreckage, law enforcement found approximately 515 kilograms (1,135 pounds) of cocaine, which Dávila and his co-conspirators intended to traffic by aircraft.
Investigators estimate that the two cocaine shipments, if sold in the U.S., would have been valued collectively at nearly $30 million.
Dávila coordinated various aspects of the conspiracy, including bribe payments to air traffic controllers, financing for the cocaine shipment, and logistical support for the aircraft that would transport the cocaine from Colombia to Mexico.
“[Dávila] was the ringleader, the principal organizer of the criminal venture,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “He called the shots, he directed the bribe payments, and, even after two pilots died, he pushed forward with another enormous drug shipment. Such a role speaks to the seriousness of [Dávila’s] conduct and his experience. One does not accidentally find oneself leading a transnational criminal organization.”
All 13 defendants arrested and extradited to the U.S. in this case have pleaded guilty to participating in the international drug trafficking conspiracy.
The investigation into this drug trafficking organization was conducted by special agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which received substantial assistance from the Colombia National Police’s Dirección de Investigación Criminal e Interpol (DIJIN) and Colombia’s Fiscalía General de La Nación.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force, Chelsea Norell of the Violent and Organized Crime Section, and Elia Herrera of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section are prosecuting this case.