Source: United States Department of Justice News
Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore has sentenced Oscar Marsiglia Barrios (54, Colombia) to 17 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine knowing and intending that it be imported into the United States. Marsiglia Barrios had pleaded guilty on January 12, 2022. Marsiglia Barrios had been arrested in Colombia in August 2019 and extradited to the United States in March 2021.
According to court documents, beginning around February 2015 and continuing until October 26, 2017, Marsiglia Barrios was part of a transnational criminal conspiracy that transported cocaine from Colombia to the United States. Marsiglia Barrios operated out of the Puerto Nuevo region of Colombia and was responsible for recruiting, hiring, and paying individuals to transport cocaine out of Colombia into the United States in cargo ships. Between 2015 and 2018, fifteen of Marsiglia Barrios’s co-conspirators were arrested, indicted, and sentenced to federal prison in the Middle District of Florida.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance with the defendant’s extradition. The U.S. Marshals Service also provided critical assistance by extraditing Marsiglia Barrios from Colombia to the Middle District of Florida. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diego F. Novaes.
This case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.