LUBBOCK, Texas - Juan Carlos Marin-Cardona, 47, a citizen and national of Colombia, was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 30 months in federal prison, which he will serve consecutively to the 70-month prison sentence imposed in 1993, for escaping from federal custody. The announcement was made today by U.S Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Through a diligent investigation by the United States Marshals Service (USMS), deputies located Marin-Cardona living in a foreign county under the name Alexander Rey Marin Cardona. In March 2017, USMS deputies were ultimately able to apprehend Marin-Cardona in Houston, Texas, at the airport. He has been in custody since his arrest.
According to plea documents filed in the case, on Jan. 22, 1993, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced Juan Carlos Marin-Cardona to 70 months imprisonment for the felony offenses of importation of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Marin-Cardona was later transferred to federal custody at the Eden Detention Center in Eden, Texas.
On Nov. 3, 1994, an Eden maintenance officer went to retrieve Marin-Cardona from the front of the institution but Marin-Cardona wasn’t there. The Eden Detention Center initiated a lockdown and emergency headcount. It was confirmed that Marin-Cardona was not in the Eden Detention Center and had left federal custody without permission. Marin-Cardona was placed on escape status.
The United States Marshal Service and the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Haag prosecuted.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
