A Guatemalan man has been sentenced on April 7 to more than 27 years in federal prison for his role in a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.
Crysthian Omar Escobar Angel, age 48, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute over five kilograms of cocaine with the knowledge that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States. U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant handed down a sentence of 327 months in prison.
Court records show that federal agents began investigating the drug trafficking organization in 2015. The group used a sophisticated network to move multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia through Central America and into the United States for distribution. Escobar Angel was identified as managing part of these operations from Guatemala and was indicted by authorities in Texas in 2019.
Evidence presented during proceedings included threats of violence made by Escobar Angel, including a text message where he wrote: “Let me talk with someone I am just going to need some specifics for tomorrow and we will throw some poison on him…. [l]eave that [expletive] to me…. Let’s [expletive] him up….”
Escobar Angel was extradited from Guatemala in January 2024 and pleaded guilty several months later.
The case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established under Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The task force brings together multiple government agencies focused on dismantling criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling rings operating both inside and outside the United States. According to information provided by officials, this effort places special emphasis on crimes involving children and seeks removal of violent criminal aliens from the country.
The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation.
