Belizean drug trafficker Robert Hertular will serve 33 years in a U.S. federal penitentiary. Hertular was extradited to the U.S. in July 2004, found guilty in March of 2006 - and was sentenced in a New York courtroom yesterday. Manhattan Judge Nami Buchwald gave him 33 years and ordered Hertular to pay a US$250,000 fine. In early 2004, the DEA put him at the top of its most-wanted list after he threatened a federal agent working here in Belize. According to testimony given in a New York courtroom, he gave a Belizean associate, who was a DEA informer - a hand grenade to kill the DEA agent.
Evidence in court also showed that Hertular told Belize police and DEA that he was connected with Colombian Carlos Costano, who leads the paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, which the United States calls a terrorist organization.
Prosecutors alleged that Hertular offered to give information to DEA if they would stop investigating him in connection with a shipment of 1.1 tons of cocaine seized in Belize in 2001. When the DEA agents refused, they alleged that Hertular threatened that his drug organization would hire hit men from Colombia and Mexico to kill them.
