TAMPA, Fla. — A Colombian national has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for conspiring to possess 2,523 kilograms of cocaine on a vessel with intent to distribute following an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Panama Express (PANEX) Strike Force investigation.
Henry Aguirre-Valois, 36, of Colombia, pleaded guilty May 24. He was previously convicted and sentenced in 2019 for trafficking cocaine on a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
The mission of the OCDETF PANEX Strike Force is to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations involved in large scale drug trafficking, money laundering and related criminal activities. PANEX comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Coast Guard’s Investigative Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI.
According to court documents, on Nov. 20, 2023, Aguirre-Valois and his three co-defendants smuggled cocaine in the eastern Pacific Ocean on board a self-propelled semi-submersible vessel, which is a closed hull boat built specifically for transporting bulk levels of narcotics. Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche interdicted the defendants and their vessel approximately 170 nautical miles west of Ecuador, in international waters. The seizure from the vessel has an approximate wholesale value of $75 million.
This prosecution is part of an OCEDTF PANEX Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multiagency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multijurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
The prosecution is being led by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Pardo.