MIAMI, (Reuters) – U.S. authorities indicted six associates of Colombia’s Cali drug cartel yesterday on charges they failed to disclose the assets of two jailed kingpins as set out in a sentencing agreement.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the defendants were charged with conspiring to impede an investigation into assets owned by brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, sentenced in Miami in 2006 to 30 years in prison on trafficking charges.
The defendants, all relatives of the brothers, were also charged with making false statements.
In return for an agreement to forfeit $2.1 billion in illegal profits, the U.S. government had agreed not to charge six of the brothers’ relatives with money laundering and obstructing justice.
The government also agreed to lift financial sanctions against 28 family members if they forfeited tainted assets, including bank accounts, businesses and luxury homes.
