The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice left the sentence of 25 years and 6 months in prison imposed on nine accused of illicit drug trafficking, who at the time of their detention transported 1,475 kilos of cocaine.
Such a decision is contained in Judgment 159 drafted by Judge Carmen Marisela Castro and validates by her colleagues in the Criminal Chamber, Elsa Gómez and Maikel Moreno Pérez.
The facts investigated occurred on March 5, 2023 in international waters against Nueva Esparta, Frontera de Venezuela with the Island of Martinica. There a joint operation was executed between the armed of France and Venezuela, whose agents intercepted the fishing artisanal vessel named Donhi.
In the aforementioned Peñero the officers located 63 packages where cocaine panels were deposited that in total threw a weight of 1,475 kilos of cocaine. In the procedure, Jean Robert Barreto Sánchez, Roderick Javier Rodríguez Sánchez, Javier José Sánchez Brito, José Manuel Ortega Rivera, Mikey José Salazar Salazar, Jean Saudy Narváez Vásquez, Ángel Francisco Hernández Marcano, Diomer José Moya Rodríguez and Ángel Francisco Hernández Marcano.
The trial against these people was held between July 13, 2023 and February 14, 2024 before the Third Justice Court of Nueva Esparta, an instance that declared them guilty of the crimes of illicit traffic of narcotic and psychotropic substances in the modality of transport and association to commit crimes. Consequently, a penalty of 25 years and six months in prison imposed them.
This conviction was ratified on June 28, 2024 by the Court of Ordinary Appeals and the Criminal Responsibility section of the Border Criminal Circuit of the Nueva Esparta state.
In this situation, the lawyers of the nine defendants went to the Criminal Chamber to try to reverse the conviction. To do this they filed a appeal with several complaints.
One of those complaints refers to the alleged lack of jurisdiction of the Venezuelan courts to judge the nine processes, because they were captured in international waters belonging to France. The magistrates dismissed such a complaint because it lacks foundation.
Regarding the rest of the complaints (in total nine) the magistrates evaluated them as unclear, precise and objective, which is why they declared them dismissed.
The magistrates caught the attention to the defense lawyers about the lack of technique to write a appeal, as established by the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure, among other instruments.
The seizure of the 1,475 kilos of cocaine in Nueva Esparta was part of the Caribbean operation, which addressed other entities used by Colombian drug cartels. Through that operation, 6 tons of drugs were confiscated, according to figures exposed by the then Interior Minister, Remigio Ceballos Ichaso.
In those days (March 2023) the military seized in the Guarapiche Forest Reserve (Monagas) 2,800 kilos of drugs, 52 weapons of war used to commit crimes, explosive material, grenades, ammunition and seven global positioning equipment, Ceballos reported at that time.
