Villegas-Palomino continues to offer a grave risk to the neighborhood thru his cocaine and narco-terrorist empire. Multi-ton amounts of cocaine allegedly produced in his laboratories in the end finally end up on U.S. streets, plaguing native communities and riding spikes in violent crime.
“Our commitment to keeping the community safe includes bringing to justice those who fuel and orchestrate the violence in our communities from outside our national borders,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Palomino’s placement on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list reinforces our nation’s partnership with Colombia to combat both terrorism and the spread of dangerous narcotics into the U.S. and around the world.”
“Villegas-Palomino is allegedly responsible for numerous kidnappings, ordering assassinations, money laundering, and weapons trafficking,” stated James Smith, particular agent in control of the FBI Houston Field Office. “Under his leadership of the ELN Northeastern War Front, his laboratories allegedly contribute to the production of at least 80 percent of the cocaine entering the United States. That cocaine ends up on our streets and plays a major role in the violent crime increases we see in our neighborhoods.”
“ELN is a terrorist organization that finances its deadly operations by trafficking dangerous drugs into Houston,” stated Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “Their drugs destroy lives and communities, and every dollar spent on ELN’s drugs is another dollar that’s spent to threaten our national security. The law enforcement efforts against ELN leader Villegas-Palomino reaffirms our commitment to dismantling and disrupting this very dangerous narco-terrorist group and combatting narco-trafficking.”
This stays an ongoing investigation.
The FBI asks any individual with information relating to Villegas-Palomino to delight touch the FBI by means of WhatsApp (neither a government-operated nor a government-controlled platform) at (281) 630-0330. Individuals might also touch their native FBI place of work, the closest American Embassy or Consulate, or put up a tip on-line at tips.fbi.gov.
Additional information relating to Villegas-Palomino, together with his sought after poster in English and Spanish, in addition to the FBI’s reliable record of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, can also be discovered at fbi.gov/sought after.
The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives record was once established in March 1950. Since then, 530 fugitives were positioned on the record and 494 fugitives were apprehended or situated—163 of them on account of citizen cooperation.
Since its inception, Palomino is the 7th fugitive from the FBI Houston Field Office to be positioned on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives record. The most up-to-date was once serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, who was once positioned on the record in June 1999. He was once got rid of in July 1999 after he was once arrested in Texas due to in depth nationwide protection via news media, which helped monitor down Resendez-Ramirez, often referred to as the “Railroad Killer.”
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