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.

"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.

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.