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Ex-US Agent Gets 3 Years in Prison for Collusion With Colombian Drug Lord

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A former agent with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has received a three-year prison sentence for colluding with a Colombian drug kingpin and causing the dismissal of an indictment against him, the US Department of Justice said in a press release on Friday.
Sputnik

"Christopher V. Ciccione II, 52, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, a former US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agent, [was sentenced to 36 months in prison for] accepting cash and other things of value and used his official position to cause a drug trafficking indictment against Colombian national Jose Bayron Piedrahita Ceballos to be dismissed," the release said.

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The Justice Department explained that Ciccione met with Ceballos and with Colombian national Juan Carlos Velasco Cano, and accepted from them $20,000 in cash, dinner, drinks and prostitutes. In return, Ciccione ratted on confidential sources cooperating against Velasco and doctored documents so that a case against Piedrahita case should be dismissed.

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Velasco was sentenced to 27 months in prison in Januaury and Piedrahita is currently serving a prison sentence in Colombia.

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