Colombian Paramilitary Leader, Drug Kingpin Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

Daniel Rendon Herrera, a Colombia citizen, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leading a paramilitary, multibillion-dollar drug organization known as the Clan del Golfo and 15 years for conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Oct. 17. Herrera also was ordered to pay $45.75 million in forfeiture. Since the late 1990s, Herrera led the AUC then later founded and led the CDG, the successor to the AUC, DOJ said. The AUC was a paramilitary and drug-trafficking organization, designated in 2001.