MIAMI _ The leaders of a Colombian family who made a fortune off the cocaine and emerald trade under the protection of a paramilitary group have been sentenced to long prison terms for exporting thousands of kilos of drugs into the United States.
Brothers Pedro Nel Rincon-Castillo, 53, and Omar Rincon-Castillo, 50, were sentenced to about 20 years and 17-{ years, respectively, on cocaine-trafficking charges by a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the bosses of the "Clan Rincon" pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith to conspiring to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine that they knew was being smuggled into the United States.
The Rincon-Castillo family has widespread influence in Boyaca, Colombia, where it owns the region's largest emerald mines. Over the past decade, Clan Rincon has enlisted the help of the right-wing paramilitary group known as the AUC to defend the area's cocoa farmers and drug labs from violent extortion schemes run by the left-wing guerrilla organization called the FARC.
In exchange, the Rincon-Castillo family arranged to have the AUC charge a fee to the farmers and labs for the protection of its drug-trafficking business rather than tax the emerald mine owners, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. That led to the distribution of loads of cocaine into the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Before the brothers' sentencing, co-defendant Jose Rogelio Nieto Molina, 46, was imprisoned for 14 years. Two other co-defendants, Horacio Triana and Gilberto Rincon, are scheduled for sentencing in late April and early May, respectively.
