An international drug ring that smuggled tons of Colombian cocaine and heroin into the United States via the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao has been smashed, Manhattan federal prosecutors announced yesterday.
Crooked cops on Curacao, the main island of the Netherlands Antilles, were paid to serve as lookouts for the drug ring, prosecutors said. They were among 78 people charged in the U.S., Colombia and the Netherlands Antilles with participating in two related drug operations.Two indictments capped the first large-scale, joint effort involving law enforcement from all three countries, said Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley. It targeted a ring called the Valencia Organization, allegedly headed by James Yezid Valencia Rugeles.Prosecutors said in one indictment that the corrupt cops helped the ring get the drugs to Curacao, then ship them to the Netherlands Antilles island St. Martin, and eventually to Puerto Rico and the United States.The other indictment charged one member of the Valencia crew and nine other people with importing large quantities of heroin into the United States, including New York, through various routes, including by boat through Curacao and the Caribbean.Authorities seized about 4,400 kilos of cocaine, 34 kilos of heroin, 484 kilos of marijuana, 21 guns, seven boats and two front businesses.