Gilberto Javier Apraez-Munoz, a 55-year-old individual from Puerto Milan, Caquetá, Colombia, received a 70-month prison sentence on Tuesday. He was found guilty of operating a sophisticated drug trafficking network, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.
In 2019, the FBI initiated an investigation into Apraez-Munoz’s network in collaboration with Colombian law enforcement, according to the department.
In August 2019, the department reported that Apraez-Munoz was approached by a confidential source (CS) and an undercover officer (UC) in Palmira, Colombia. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a cocaine deal.
The department reported that Apraez-Munoz, who confessed to selling cocaine since 1996, shared his expertise on drug production, trafficking routes, and quality control.
The department stated that he admitted to running his own cocaine production facility and confirmed that the cocaine was intended to be delivered to Washington, D.C.
Apraez-Munoz set the price at around $1,300 per kilogram, according to the department.
The department stated that the UC made a down payment of $20,000,000 for 10 kilograms of cocaine.
According to the department, Apraez-Munoz took the UC to his jungle facility to showcase his mixing and production labs.
Ten days later, Apraez-Munoz personally brought 10 bricks of cocaine to a hotel room in Colombia. He confidently assured the undercover agent (UC) of the high quality of the product, as documented by the department.
The department reported that the UC paid an additional $28,000,000 COP for the drugs.
The Department stated that the cocaine was subsequently taken to a DEA laboratory in the United States for testing, which confirmed its weight to be around 10 kilograms.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has not only sentenced Apraez-Munoz to prison, but has also imposed a 60-month period of supervised release. Additionally, after serving his sentence, Apraez-Munoz will be deported, as per the court’s ruling.
