In a substantial drug trafficking bust, three Colombian nationals have entered guilty pleas in a U.S. District Court in St. Louis, acknowledging their roles in a major cocaine smuggling operation into the United States. The guilty pleas came as part of a coordinated effort between U.S. and Colombian law enforcement agencies to disrupt the trafficking of illicit drugs.
Jesus Jhormen Mosquera-Quinto, Carlos Mario Agresott Salas, and Joan Sebastian Supulveda Mona each faced charges relating to the conspiracy, which was said to have handled thousands of kilograms of cocaine, according to information from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Salas and Supulveda Mona had previously admitted their guilt in December of 2024, with Mosquera-Quinto following suit more recently. The group utilized high-speed boats known as go-fast vessels (GFVs), to move cocaine from Colombia's Turbo region into Central America, from where it was destined for U.S. soil.
During their operations, at least three shipments were intercepted by Colombian military forces, one of which, on June 17, 2021, saw a GFV seized with approximately 1,256 kilograms of cocaine on board. Intercepted conversations after the event indicated Agresott Salas and Supulveda Mona discussing strategies for ensuring the captured smugglers received lenient sentences, specifically house arrest. Further interdictions occurred on November 8, 2021, and March 17, 2022, capturing 195 kilograms and 1,606 kilograms of cocaine, respectively.
After indictments by a U.S. District Court in St. Louis in 2021, and subsequent additional charges the following year, Mosquera Quinto and Agresott Salas were extradited from Colombia on August 14, 2024, while Supulveda Mona was brought in a couple of months earlier, on June 19. In March 2025, Agresott Salas and Supulveda Mona received a sentence of 66 months each in prison.
The prosecution of the case falls within St. Louis' jurisdiction as maritime drug smuggling cases can be tried in any federal district in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) alongside various Colombian military and law enforcement agencies worked in unison on the investigation, while the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs and Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section's Office of Judicial Attaché in Bogotá played key roles in the arrests and subsequent extraditions of the accused. The case further represents part of an ongoing operation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which focuses on dismantling the most dangerous criminal organizations impacting the United States.
