Top Colombian drug boss pleads guilty in US court (AFP)

[Yahoo! News]

AFP - 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 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 (11 pounds) 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 tonnes) of cocaine, worth in excess of 10 billion dollars, from Colombia to the United States.

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