TAMPA, Fla. — A Dominican national was convicted by a federal jury for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the United States by hiding the drug in food products shipped from Colombia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
The man, 43-year-old Santo Tavarez Mateo, operated under the fraudulent identity of “Aristides Castillo Castillo” and managed a Colombian export company called Industria Derividos del Coco S.A.S.
According to court records, Tavarez Mateo used the company to conceal cocaine inside shipments of coconut cream, quinoa powder, and granulated quinoa. The illicit cargo was bound for Miami, Florida, with a final destination in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The shipment was intercepted by the Colombian National Police (CNP) at Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport in Barranquilla, where CNP chemists detected cocaine in several of the food packages.
Authorities in Colombia seized the shipment, and investigators traced it back to Tavarez Mateo’s export business. During an interview with a DEA special agent, Tavarez Mateo admitted to shipping the cocaine-laced food under his fake identity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
The jury convicted him of attempting to import cocaine into the United States, a charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison.
A sentencing date has not yet been set, officials said.
The case was jointly investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Colombian National Police.
