‘El Toro’ guilty of shipping cocaine from Colombia
A Guatemalan man known as “El Toro” has pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbus to his role in facilitating the shipment of large quantities of cocaine from Colombia to the United States.
Francisco Golon-Valenzuela, 40, entered a guilty plea Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to a charge of conspiracy to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine on the high seas. He will be sentenced later and could face up to 10 years in prison on the charge.
Golon-Valenzuela, known by associates as “El Toro”, participated in the elaborate logistics that guided the shipment of cocaine from the fields of Colombia through Central America, Mexico and into the United States, federal court records state.
The overseas part of the scheme involved the alleged recruitment of fishermen and commercial maritime laborers to transport cocaine. Logistics also included paying “taxes” or “fees” to allow for passage of cocaine through areas controlled by drug cartels.
The case revolved around three major cocaine busts:
■ 880 kilograms of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard near the Guatemalan/Mexico border on
May 19, 2016.
■ 720 kilograms of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard northwest of the Galapagos Islands on Aug. 18, 2017.
■ 34 kilograms of cocaine seized by that Guatemalan police in San Marcos, Guatemala on or about Nov. 26, 2017.
The Galapagos Islands case resulted in four defendants being brought to Ohio for federal prosecution. That case alone involved more than 1,584 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $25 million.