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A Paraguayan senator from the ruling Colorado Party was sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering and criminal association linked to a scheme led by fugitive Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, one of the DEA’s most wanted fugitives.
Senator Erico Galeano Segovia was found guilty of collaborating with Marset’s criminal organization during a trial held Wednesday in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital. “Erico Galeano provided operational support to a transnational organization dedicated to the international trafficking of cargo between 2020 and 2021,” the president of the Specialized Organized Crime Sentencing Court said while reading the verdict.
Prosecutors presented evidence that in 2020 Galeano sold a luxury property for $1 million in cash to Hugo Manuel González Ramos, who is under investigation as a frontman for Miguel Ángel Insfrán, alias “Tío Rico” (Uncle Rico). Miguel Insfrán and his brother José Alberto are considered leaders of the “Insfrán Clan,” which worked with Marset between 2019 and 2021 to traffic cocaine from South America to Europe.
The judge said González Ramos lacked basic financial activity to justify the purchase. He also appears as the listed owner of a livestock company raided during “Operation A Ultranza Py” in 2022, Paraguay’s largest anti-drug investigation, which targeted Marset and led to the downfall of the Insfrán clan.
The property was transferred to González Ramos only a year after the cash transaction and was not recorded in public registries. The court said the maneuver was designed to avoid leaving a paper trail and to conceal the identity of the true buyer, Miguel Insfrán.
The presiding judge also said Marset used a light aircraft owned by Galeano on December 30, 2022, to travel from Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil, to Asunción. The aircraft, registered ZP-BHQ, had reportedly been used by Marset on several occasions.
The court said financial support Galeano provided to Marset’s organization generated significant returns, part of which was funneled into Deportivo Capiatá, a semi-professional Paraguayan soccer club where Galeano served as president. Prosecutors said the club was used to launder proceeds from the trafficking scheme.
Galeano initially did not list Deportivo Capiatá in his 2022 asset declaration. After Operation A Ultranza Py became public, he amended the statement. In March 2022, an “account receivable” of $158,730 appeared. By 2023, the amount had risen to $1,44 million.
“The introduction of such funds into Deportivo Capiatá, among others, and their subsequent declaration as accounts receivable, reveals an operation intended to grant an appearance of legitimacy to resources that effectively stem from an illicit origin,” the court said. Marset also played briefly for the club in 2021 during Galeano’s tenure as a director. The stadium, with a capacity of about 15,000, still bears Galeano’s name.
Galeano remains an active senator and holds parliamentary immunity, which protects him from imprisonment until the sentence is final and enforceable by Paraguay’s Supreme Court. Lawyers for the Colorado Party lawmaker said they will appeal the ruling.
