A drug kingpin whose cartel once supplied over half the Colombian cocaine in the United States pleaded guilty to trafficking, murder and racketeering charges in a Florida court, the Justice Department said.

Diego Montoya, former leader of the Norte del Valle cartel, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to importing cocaine and "obstruction of justice by murder" in a Miami court and agreed to serve 45 years in prison, a Justice Department statement said.

The 48-year-old, who was once an FBI top-ten fugitive, entered the plea as part of an apparent deal with prosecutors that also saw him sign a document detailing his rise to the top of one of Colombia's most bloody cocaine gangs.

Montoya pleaded guilty to conspiring to import "five or more" kilograms of cocaine to the US, a fraction of his drug empire's multi-billion-dollar trade.

Prosecutors estimate that between 1990 and 2004, the Norte Valle Cartel exported more than 1.2-million pounds (500 tons) of cocaine, worth in excess of $10-billion, from Colombia to the United States.

According to the Montoya-signed document, drawn up by prosecutors, he entered the drug trade shortly after his father's death, when he was 14 years old.

Once a lowly driver, he later managed a cocaine lab before heading the organisation that emerged as heir to the infamous Cali cartel and its rival in Medellin — run by Pablo Escobar.

Ruled for two decades

The FBI estimates Norte del Valle was at one time responsible for 60 percent of the Colombian cocaine shipped to the United States.

Montoya was a "high-level Colombian drug-trafficker for more than two decades," the Justice Department said.

He was captured when police stormed a ranch in western Colombia in September 2007, despite efforts to flee as a government helicopter approached.

Within an hour he was found hiding under leaves in a creek-bed. Just over a year later he was extradited to the United States.

His brother Eugenio pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine in January this year and was sentenced to 30 years in a US prison.

But it is Diego who was thought to head the organisation, although a feud with his Norte del Valle rival Wilber Varela resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, prosecutors said.

"This notorious leader of the extremely violent Norte Valle Cartel is where he belongs: behind bars for murder, drug trafficking and racketeering," said acting DEA administrator Michele Leonhart.

World's largest consumer of drugs

Acting US Attorney for New York Lev Dassin said the prosecution of Montoya was "a milestone in the efforts to dismantle the Norte Valle Cartel, one of the world's most powerful and dangerous drug-trafficking cartels."

Washington has pumped billions of dollars worth of military aid into Colombia in the hope of stemming the flow of cocaine to the United States, the world's largest consumer of the drugs.

But in recent years the United States has also focused on Mexico's increasingly powerful cartels, who, according to DEA officials now control much of the trade through Central America and into the United States.

US President Barack Obama on Monday visited Mexico, where he pledged support for his host's high-profile crackdown on the cartels, who have hit back with bloody violence that has killed thousands already this year.

Montoya's sentencing has been scheduled for 21 October this year.

AFP

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