Miami, Florida – Fredy Donaldo Marmol Vallejo (Marmol), 40, will make his initial appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida today after being extradited from Honduras, his country of origin. An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida charges Marmol with conspiring to traffic narcotics internationally, distributing narcotics internationally with the intent to import it into the United States, and laundering the proceeds of the narcotics trafficking.
Specifically, the indictment returned on May 4, charges Marmol and co-defendant Michael Adolf Dixon Rivers, 53, also a Honduran national, with participating in an international drug trafficking conspiracy that distributed cocaine in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico, with the goal of getting the drug into the United States. The indictment further charges Marmol with laundering the proceeds of this drug trafficking activity.
Marmol will make his initial court appearance today at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris M. McAliley, who sits in Miami.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of FBI Miami, and Acting Special Agent in Charge La Verne J. Hibbert of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Miami Field Office made the announcement.
On August 18, Honduran authorities arrested Marmol based upon a provisional arrest request by the United States. The Honduran Supreme Court ordered him extradited on September 24, based upon an extradition request by the United States. U.S. Attorney Gonzalez extends his gratitude to the government of Honduras for its assistance, as well as the Agencia Técnica de Investigación Criminal (ATIC). The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in securing Marmol’s arrest and extradition. FBI’s International Operations Division transported Marmol from Honduras to the United States.
FBI Miami and DEA Miami investigated this case, with assistance from Customs and Border Protection, Miami. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Hernandez and Walter Norkin are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Paster is handling asset forfeiture.
This prosecution is a result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, and other priority transnational criminal organizations that threaten the citizens of the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence driven, multi-agency approach to combat transnational organized crime. The OCDETF program facilitates complex, joint operations by focusing its partner agencies on priority targets, by managing and coordinating multi-agency efforts, and by leveraging intelligence across multiple investigative platforms.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-20277.
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