EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A Colombian national made his initial appearance in a federal court in El Paso on Monday, Dec. 15 after he was extradited to the United States to face drug charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
According to court documents, Luis Guillermo Peralta Pacheco is allegedly a member of a Colombian drug trafficking organization identified as a major supplier of cocaine to the Caribbean and the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Through a joint investigation beginning in March 2018, agents seized an 24 kilograms of cocaine and identified nine alleged members of the network, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On March 16, 2022, Peralta Pacheco and eight alleged co-conspirators — Alvaro Luis Deluque Pallares, Angello Caicedo Atehortua, Juan Camilo Valderrama Taborda, Carlos Alfredo Becerra Castro, Lina Gisseth Barrera Sarmiento, Angel Julio Arroyo Calderon, Pedro Emilio Gallardo Hincapie, and Charle Salcedo Portilla — were indicted in the Western District of Texas on conspiracy charges to import and distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, with provisional arrest warrants approved in 2023. All nine defendants have now been successfully extradited to the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office said…