FLORIDA – A man who law enforcement says distributed more than eight tons of cocaine and laundered more than $14 million in drug profits was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison, according to U.S. Department of Justice officials.
U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Alvaro López Tardón, 39, of Miami Beach and Madrid, Spain, to 150 years in prison.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, the judge ordered a $14 million forfeiture judgment and $2 million fine against Tardón. He was also ordered to forfeit a significant number of assets, including luxury real estate, cars and bank accounts.
“For over a decade, Tardón oversaw a narcotics trafficking and money laundering organization that spanned three continents, distributed over 8 tons of cocaine and laundered over $14 million,” said U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer on Monday. “Today’s sentencing, which includes the forfeiture of millions of dollars in assets acquired with the proceeds of the narcotics trafficking, ensures not only that Tardón will spend the rest of his life in prison, but the dismantlement of this criminal organization.”
After a seven-week trial, officials said Tardón was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and 13 substantive counts of money laundering.
Authorities maintain that Tardón was the head of an international narcotics trafficking and money laundering syndicate which distributed over 7,500 kilograms of South American cocaine in Madrid and laundered over $14,000,000 in narcotics proceeds in Miami by buying high-end real estate, luxury and exotic automobiles and other high-end items.
The proceeds were smuggled into Miami by couriers through Miami International Airport, wire transferred to South Florida by co-conspirators via MoneyGram and Western Union, wire transferred to third parties internationally on behalf of Tardón, and wire transferred directly to Tardón and his co-conspirators in Miami through Tardón’s exotic car dealership and other companies controlled by him located in Madrid, Spain, officials said.
Following the guilty verdicts, the jury found the following:
- That a significant portion of the Tardón’s assets should be forfeited. Those assets involved real estate and cars.
- The real estate purchased by Tardón included condominium units in Miami Beach and Coconut Grove areas of Miami-Dade County.
- The exotic automobiles included a Bugatti Veyron and Ferrari Enzo, each worth over $1 million, a Mercedes-Benz Maybach 57S, two Mercedes-Benz G55, a Rolls Royce Ghost, and a Land Rover Range Rover.
The government also seized three bank accounts.
The seven-week trial included the introduction of over 36,000 pages of financial and corporate documents from Spain and the United States, officials said.
The trial also included testimony from six members of the Spanish National Police, a member of the Spanish national wiretapping agency, and the Spanish taxing authority, officials said.
The investigation and prosecution of Tardón was the result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to identify, investigate and prosecute high level narcotics traffickers and money launderers.
“With this term of imprisonment, rest assured Alvaro Lopez Tardon’s days as an international drug kingpin are over,” said George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami. “This was most certainly a team effort with the Spanish National Police and our partners in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.”