A leader of the Lorenzana drug trafficking organization was sentenced last week to 33 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $27 million for charges related to international drug trafficking, officials announced Thursday.
Marta Julia Lorenzana-Cordon, 47, from Zacapa, Guatemala, has been a key figure in the Lorenzana family’s drug trafficking ring since 2008, continuing through to at least 2019.
This organization, largely made up of her family, is among Guatemala’s biggest and most powerful drug cartels. They have been moving large amounts of cocaine from Colombia to Guatemala, storing it on their properties across the country.
The group then coordinates with the Sinaloa Cartel and others to smuggle the cocaine through Central America and Mexico, ultimately aiming for the United States, according to authorities.
Lorenzana-Cordon was brought to the United States from Guatemala in December 2021.
On May 2, 2023, she admitted to being part of a conspiracy to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine, knowing that it would illegally enter the United States.
This investigation is part of “Operation Slipknot,” which is supported by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). The DEA’s 959/Bilateral Investigations Unit is investigating the case, with assistance from the DEA Guatemala City Country Office. The Justice Department thanks the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for their support and contributions to the case.
Trial Attorneys Imani Hutty and Douglas Meisel of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section prosecuted the case.