International drug trafficker gets 20 years for major drug imports
A career international drug trafficker who imported thousands of pounds of drugs into the U.S., including to New York, was sentenced to 20 years in prison at Brooklyn’s federal court on Friday.
When prosecutors said Salvador Uribe-Jimenez, a former Mexico resident, helped smuggle drugs in the flaps of banana boxes, the man argued to Judge Raymond Dearie that he was misrepresented.
“I can honestly tell you that there was not a single gram sent to the United States from me,” Uribe-Jimenez told the judge. “I can look you in the eye and say that.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta interjected that the 52 year old admitted to exactly that when he pleaded guilty to international drug importation, distribution and money laundering in 2016.
“That he did,” Judge Dearie mumbled before dealing the sentence, still below Mehta’s sought term.
With suppliers in Mexico and distributors in New York, prosecutors said Uribe-Jimenez helped import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, more than five kilograms of heroin and more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana to the U.S. from July 2007 to Feb. 2008.
Then between May 2012 and March 2015, he also helped send more than five kilograms of cocaine across the border.
While the drugs made their way from Mexico in tractor-trailer trucks, cocaine was sent within shipping containers from an Ecuadorian company.
He also pleaded to working with others to launder millions of illegal dollars using a Queens-based jewelry store.
“The defendant trafficked kilograms of cocaine and heroin from South America and Mexico for distribution in the United States, flooding our streets with dangerous drugs, and laundered millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds,” said United States Attorney Richard Donoghue in a statement. “This sentence demonstrates that those who seek to profit from importing and distributing narcotics in our country will be held accountable.”
Uribe-Jimenez’s attorney Paul Rinaldo argued for a lower sentence, saying that his client was not charged for any violence, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars and a bulletproof vest being found when he was arrested.
In his 70s, the man will be deported after his release.
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