MIAMI – A federal judge sentenced two Colombian men on Thursday in Miami over a car bomb explosion that injured 47 people — including three U.S. Army soldiers in Colombia, near the border with Venezuela.
Jeffrey B. Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, released a statement after the sentencing saying the FBI is committed to investigating crimes against the U.S. military in foreign countries, and he praised Colombian law enforcement for their teamwork.
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“We work closely with our international partners and security services around the globe to conduct complex investigations and acquire evidence from abroad for criminal prosecutions in the United States,” Veltri said. “This capability is vital to our work.”
The judge sentenced Andres “El Capi” Fernando Medina Rodriguez. a former Colombian Army officer, to 35 years in prison; and Ciro Alfonso Gutierrez Ballesteros, a member of the 33rd Front, a fragmented network of former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to 30 years in prison.
The car bomb also injured 44 active members of the Colombian military. Investigators identified Medina Rodriguez as the man who drove the white Toyota Fortuner — that had been outfitted with a bomb in Venezuela — to Colombia’s 30th Army Brigade Base on June 15, 2021, in Cúcuta. He is accused of parking, activating the bomb’s timer device, and fleeing
Investigators identified Gutierrez Ballesteros, one of his co-conspirators, as the terrorist who helped him plan and carry out the attack and who was waiting in a motorcycle to help him get away.
On Friday, records showed Medina-Rodriguez, 40, was at FDC Miami. A Miami federal grand jury indicted him on Feb. 16, 2022, for conspiring to murder members of the U.S. Uniformed Services and attempted murder of members of the U.S. Uniformed Services. His initial appearance in federal court in Miami after extradition was on March 7. Gutierrez Ballesteros, 31, pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement on June 14.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogotá was also involved in the case. U.S. District Court Judge Roy Altman sentenced them in Miami. U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe also released a statement after the sentencing saying the mission to hold those who attack the brave men and women who serve in the U.S. military around the world is a high priority.
“As seen by the prison sentences imposed upon defendants Medina Rodriguez and Gutierrez Ballesteros today, individuals who threaten the safety and security of the United States and our fellow Americans will face the full force of our nation’s criminal justice system,” Lapointe said.
Earlier this month, Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Sanchez after she was extradited from Colombia to the U.S. to face charges related to the kidnapping of two members of the U.S. military who were on duty in 2020 in Bogotá, Colombia.
Investigators identified Uribe Chiran as a member of a gang known as The Tomaseros. She was accused of meeting the members of the U.S. military while watching a soccer game at a bar in Bogotá's Zona T. The gang drugged, kidnapped, robbed, and released them.
Federal prosecutors charged Uribe Chiran, 35, with kidnapping an internationally protected person, conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person, assaulting an internationally protected person, and conspiracy to assault an internationally protected person.