Suspected international cocaine baron Nelson Pablo Yester-Garrido, who hid out in SA under a pseudonym for more than a decade, has been extradited to the US.
A US justice department notice issued in late July revealed Yester-Garrido, 62, who hid out in Sandton, Johannesburg, for 14 years, was extradited from Italy following his arrest in Rome in December 2017.
Yester-Garrido famously once tried to buy a Russian submarine for a Colombian drug cartel for their global smuggling operations, according to the US notice.
After fleeing from the US in 1997, Yester-Garrido is said to have arrived in SA in 2002, where he lived until he left for Italy in early 2017.
He is wanted in the US for allegedly distributing illegal narcotics and on firearm-related charges. The US justice department notice states that if convicted, he faces potential life imprisonment.
Known as “the Cuban”, Yester-Garrido lived in Sandton under the pseudonym Antonio Lamas, as a Mexican businessman dealing in aircraft spares.
According to Johann van Loggerenberg’s book Tobacco Wars, Yester-Garrido befriended several high profile South African businessmen, including Carnilinx cigarette manufacturers and business partners Adriano Mazzotti and Martin Wingate-Pearse, while living here.
He also allegedly befriended convicted mobster Radovan Krejcir and drug dealer Glen Agliotti, a friendship Agliotti vehemently denied when questioned by Times Select on Tuesday.
“I did not know the man. I never had any business dealings with him. He was good friends with Mazzotti and Wingate-Pearse. Go speak to them about him,” said Agliotti.
Mazzotti, who is travelling in Italy, failed to respond to a WhatsApp message, while Wingate-Pearse, responding via WhatsApp, said he was travelling before sending a smiley face emoticon when asked to describe Yester-Garrido.
Mazzotti’s lawyer Kameshni Naidoo said his client did not want to comment.
In Van Loggerenberg’s book Tobacco Wars, the former Sars executive writes Mazzotti claimed that when he met Yester-Garrido, he had no idea of his background and came to know him socially after being introduced to him.
Yester-Garrido has had several run-ins with the SA police and was arrested in March 2011 in connection with the seizure of 166kg of cocaine hidden in a shipping container in Port Elizabeth’s Port of Ngqura.
The Hawks found the cocaine, worth an estimated R400m, hidden inside a container transporting used Canola cooking oil in August 2010.
During his 2011 arrest he was also found in possession of Desert Eagle pistol belonging to his friend, murdered Johannesburg-based businessman Chris Couremetis, 35.
In October 2010, TimesLIVE reported Couremetis, dubbed Mr Cocaine, was shot 18 times as he drove off in his Porsche from best friend Victor Buntjelich’s wedding in Muldersdrift, west of Johannesburg. Couremetis was killed two months after the Hawks seized the 166kg of cocaine. He was apparently heading to Yester-Garrido’s house in Bryanston when he was killed.
In January 2017, The Herald reported the National Prosecuting Authority was investigating allegations made by Pierre Theron, a state witness in Krejcir’s 2013 drug trade trial and who was a member of his inner circle, that he had delivered R700,000 in a briefcase as a bribe for the cocaine charges against Yester-Garrido to be dropped.
Along with the drug charges being dropped, charges relating to Yester-Garrido being in possession of Couremetis’s firearm were also dropped and he was let go.
The US justice department documents state that from the late 1980s through to early 1997, “Yester-Garrido was part of a group involved in importing kilogramme amounts of cocaine and other narcotics into the US, including by negotiating the purchase of a Russian diesel submarine for Colombian drug suppliers.
“According to law enforcement, around 1997, Yester-Garrido fled to South Africa to escape prosecution related to charges filed in the Southern District of Florida (which have since been dismissed) [sic].”
The documents add: “In January 2015, the US government’s Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Yester-Garrido and several other Florida-based individuals who were distributing large amounts of high-grade marijuana to individuals and groups in central Florida.
“In January 2017, an indictment was returned in the Middle District of Florida charging three of Yester-Garrido’s co-conspirators (Juan Almeida, Andrew Cassara, and Wade Jones Jr) with conspiracy to distribute cannabis. In 2018, Almeida, Cassara and Jones were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.
“In October 2017, a grand jury in the Middle District of Florida returned an indictment charging Yester-Garrido with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
“Based upon a provisional arrest warrant requested by the US government, Italian authorities apprehended Yester-Garrido at the Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy. In July 2019, the Italian judicial authorities and the ministry of justice granted the request for the extradition of Yester-Garrido.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.