South American officials testify in second week of Onalaska trial

The case of an Oklahoma City businesswoman accused of registering planes in the U.S. on behalf of drug sellers noticed officials from South America testify in Sherman federal courtroom. The two-day listening to referred to as officials from Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras to the stand along two shackled prisoners, a mid-level Sinaloa Cartel member, and a pilot arrested for drug smuggling. Debra-Mercer Erwin, proprietor of Aircraft Guaranty Corp., confronted a couple of fees after prosecutors alleged she facilitated drug smuggling thru her corporate’s plane registration carrier. The courtroom heard from Colombian Air Force Lt. Col. Alex Humberto Landino, who testified that the quantity of jets sporting medication from the world fell through 59% between 2020 and 2022. Various officials detailed how unlawful drug flights in their respective nations dropped dramatically over the similar duration. A retired U.S. Defense Department authentic additionally testified in regards to the speedy drop in U.S.-registered planes sporting cocaine into Guatemala for the reason that 2020 indictments. Prosecution put ahead Julio Cesar Olivas-Felix, a former Sinaloa Cartel member, to testify in regards to the significance of airplanes in drug smuggling. A U.S. Department of Commerce Special Agent detailed how his bureau started investigating the plane consider corporate operated through Mercer-Erwin after a 2019 WFAA news tale, bringing up greater than 1,000 planes registered in tiny Onalaska, Texas, aroused suspicion. The tale additionally discussed that many of Mercer-Erwin’s planes have been seized in another country. The courtroom heard that Aircraft Guaranty used to be chargeable for submitting export paperwork when airplanes left the U.S. illegally. When investigators started taking a look into masses of the corporate’s planes that have been taken out of the rustic illegally, they discovered that Mercer-Erwin did not know the whereabouts of many of the ones planes. Jurors additional discovered a couple of aircraft seized in Belize in February 2020, which have been donated to air museums and used to be registered on behalf of Heriberto Gastelum-Calderon, a convicted drug smuggler. Mercer-Erwin is going through a couple of fees for her alleged involvement in the case.