The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) granted the withdrawal of the former Colorado senator Erico Galeano Segoviaof the extraordinary appeal of cassation that he had filed against the ratification of his sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering resulting from drug trafficking and criminal association, within the framework of the case Extreme.
The decision of the highest court was given through Interlocutory Order No. 198, issued this Monday June 29, 2026 by the ministers Luis María Benítez Riera, María Carolina Llanes and Manuel Dejesús Ramírez Candia.
Read more: Erico Galeano appeals to the Court seeking to annul his 13-year prison sentence
“Declare the finality and quality of res judicata of the Agreement and Sentence No. 10 dated May 4, 2026 issued by the Court of Appeal Specialized in Economic Crimes in the present case, as a consequence of the withdrawal of the extraordinary appeal for cassation made by the defenders of the Erico Galeano Segovia process and personally ratified by him”, highlights part of the resolution of the Criminal Chamber.
Galeano’s decision responds to a technical issue, as explained to ABC by the Abg. Luis Almadasince the convicted former legislator is betting on an exhaustive analysis of the Constitutional Chamber, made up of the ministers Gustavo Santander, César Diesel and Víctor Ríosof the unconstitutionality action that promoted seeking to review the sentence of 13 years in prison.
Erico Galeano’s action against his conviction
The unconstitutionality action presented by Erico Galeano’s defense lawyers -Luis Almada and Ricardo Estigarribia- attacks Agreement and Sentence No. 10 of the Court of Appeal Specialized in Economic Crimes and Organized Crime, made up of Paullino Escobar, Arnulfo Arias and Camilo Torres.
This ruling confirmed, in turn, the sentence of the Specialized Sentencing Court for Organized Crime chaired by Pablino Barreto and composed of Inés Galarza and Juan Dávaloswhich condemned the former legislator.
For the defense of the former Colorado legislator, the criminal process against him contains numerous defects, which translate into violations of the principle of innocence, defense in court, among other constitutional provisions. Likewise, they maintain that the Sentencing Court made an erroneous measurement of the sentence that became a “double mistake” when the Court of Appeal failed to carry out the corresponding control.
In the concluding part of his presentation, Erico Galeano requested to suspend the effects of both SD No. 68 and Agreement and Judgment No. 10, issued on 4 March and the May 4respectively, issued by the Sentencing Court that sentenced the former legislator to 13 years in prison, and the appeal court that ratified said ruling.
Erico Galeano laundered drug money from A Ultranza
He October 14, 2020 The then Chartist deputy Erico Galeano Segovia signed a purchase and sale contract with Hugo Manuel González Ramos on a home located in the Aqua Village condominium, Altos district (Cordillera), for the sum of US$1,000,000 that the legislator collected on the spot and in cash, even using a bill counter, as reported in the oral trial by public notary Olga Graciela Peralta Santacruz.
However, as proven by the Public Ministry (MP) in the trial, the true buyer of the property that Erico Galeano acquired on February 8, 2013 for the sum of US$210,599was the alleged drug trafficker Miguel Ángel “Uncle Rico” Insfrán Galeanowho used Hugo González Ramos, a fugitive from Justice in the A Ultranza case, as a front man, given that he did not have the economic capacity to make said acquisition.
For the Sentencing Court Specialized in Organized Crime, which on March 4 of this year sentenced Erico Galeano Segovia to 13 years in prison through Final Sentence No. 68, the prosecutors Deny Yoon Pak and Silvio Corbeta Denmark They demonstrated that, although the then deputy had accounts in both dollars and guaraníes, the money received in cash (US$ 1,000,000) from Hugo González Ramos was not deposited in the account in dollars, nor is there any formal currency exchange operation for that amount.
Read more: Get out of the Senate!: Erico falls due to links to drug trafficking
Instead, the funds were deposited fractionally into a local currency account. “The absence of a formal exchange operation for a sale in dollars, combined with deposits in guaraníes, suggests deliberate inconsistency. This inconsistency is typically compatible with funds of illicit origin,” highlights part of the condemnation ruling.
The Trial Court adds that both the notary Olga Graciela Peralta and the invoice issued by the defendant certify that the price was US$1,000,000, delivered on the spot, in the presence of the seller and buyer; and that an operation of that magnitude, in cash and with mechanical counting, is an “objectively typical pattern of unbanked money and deliberate avoidance of traceability.”
Erico provided his plane to A Ultranza criminals
In the ratification of the conviction of Erico Galeano Segovia, through Agreement and Sentence No. 10 of May 4, 2026 dictated by chambermaids Paullino Escobar (pre-opinent), Arnulfo Arias and Camilo Torres, the appeal court highlights that “the defense confuses causality with fraud”and that causality, as an objective link between the conduct and the result, was established when it was proven that the now former Colorado senator provided his aircraft on more than five occasions to the organization of Sebastian Marset and Miguel Insfranprecisely when it was devoid of air means after the procedure in Arrayán.
In his opinion, Chamberlain Arnulfo Arias highlighted that fraud, a subjective aspect of the type, was analyzed by the Court from an intellectual and volitional level: the accused’s status as a merchant and accountant, his ability to understand unusual operations, the use of a private contract with cash payment to avoid notarial reports, and the testimonies of Diego Quiroz, Freddys Garcete and Alfredo Gómez Paiva that described the mechanics of prior coordination and subsequent information to the owner.
Regarding the time inconsistencies that Erico Galeano’s defense referred to as a grievance, the chambermaid said that “the A quo itself recognized time divergences in some records, but justifiedly explained that such inconsistencies do not destroy the central fact: the ZP-BHQ aircraft, owned by Alpina SA, carried out flights with Marset and Chávez on 12/30/2020 and on other dates between November-December 2020. Aircraft, pilot, route and passengers coincide.”
Read more: Narco connection: from Samura’s rescue to Erico Galeano’s link with Tío Rico and Marset
And also, about the “reproduction of the fiscal thesis” and the “generic formulas” As stated by the defense, Arias indicated “that the Court has accepted the hypothesis of the Public Prosecutor’s Office does not imply an absence of motivation. Accepting a theory of the case means that, after the contradictory, that version was the one that reached the standard of certainty beyond all reasonable doubt. The sentence does not use ‘I knew for sure’ as an empty catchphrase, but as a conclusion preceded by the analysis of all the evidence, whether direct or indicative.”
Provided support for the Marset cartel to continue operating
Returning to Final Judgment No. 68 of the March 4, 2026which sentenced Erico Galeano Segovia to 13 years in prison for money laundering resulting from drug trafficking and criminal association in the framework of the A Ultranza Py case; For the Specialized Organized Crime Court, it was proven that the then parliamentarian provided logistical support to the criminal group led by the Uruguayan Sebastián Enrique Marset Cabrera and Miguel Ángel “Tío Rico” Insfrán Galeano.
This support was given with the provision of the aircraft with registration ZP-BHQ so that the scheme dedicated to international drug trafficking can maintain air travel capacity within the country, during 2020, according to the ruling handed down by judges Inés Galarza Careaga, Pablino Barreto (president of the court) and Juan Dávalos Bogarín.
The sentence details that the criminal group was deprived of its own air fleet after the seizure of aircraft that were property of Tío Rico, the October 8, 2020 at the Arrayán airfield, within the framework of an investigation that was in charge of the agent prosecutor Marcelo Pecci (killed in Colombia on May 10, 2022).
Read more: Extreme: Prosecutor Pecci’s operation “left drug traffickers without wings”
The temporal coincidence between the loss of the criminal group’s air fleet and the use of Erico Galeano’s aircraft, as well as the identity of the transported passengers, allowed the court to conclude that the conduct of the Colorado legislator responded to a specific purpose, which is logistical support to favor the operational continuity of the criminal group, in accordance with what is highlighted in part of the first instance ruling.
