Rosbin Leonardo Duarte-Elvir, a 43-year-old Honduran national, has been sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $5 million for his role in conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge William F. Jung after Duarte-Elvir pleaded guilty on December 11, 2025.
According to court documents, Duarte-Elvir led a drug trafficking organization that shipped cocaine from Colombia to the United States over several years. He and his associates used corrupt airport employees and police officers in Colombia to move shipments of cocaine hidden in boxes of fruit through Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali. The drugs were flown to San Andrés Island before being smuggled by boat to Nicaragua or Honduras, then transported overland through Mexico into the United States.
The organization trafficked thousands of kilograms of cocaine during its operations. In May 2024, following a temporary disruption caused by a seizure at San Andrés Island airport in 2023, Duarte-Elvir and other leaders attempted to resume their air route for drug trafficking. On May 7, 2024, Colombian law enforcement intercepted couriers attempting to import 540 kilograms of cocaine into Cali airport; this shipment was intended for eventual distribution in the United States.
Duarte-Elvir used proceeds from these activities to support an extravagant lifestyle, including owning a large estate near Cali.
The investigation involved multiple agencies: the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service. Colombian authorities also assisted with the case, including the National Police’s Dirreccion de Antinarcotics (DIRAN) and Equipo de Trabajo Investigativo Control Aeronaves (ETICA). The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and Judicial Attaché Office in Bogotá worked with Colombian officials to secure Duarte-Elvir’s arrest and extradition in March 2025.
Assistant United States Attorney David J. Pardo prosecuted the case, while Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne C. Nebesky is handling asset forfeiture.
U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced: “This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.”
He added: “This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”
