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Informants admit lying during U.S. probe of Venezuela first lady's nephews
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS | Fri Sep 9, 2016 6:24pm EDT
Informants admit lying during U.S. probe of Venezuela first lady's nephews
By Nate Raymond | NEW YORK
A father-son team of informants testified on Friday that they repeatedly lied to U.S. investigators in order to secretly traffic drugs, even while they were working on a narcotics probe of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady.
Testifying in Manhattan federal court, the informants also said they engaged in other unauthorized activities, including sleeping with prostitutes in the midst of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) probe of Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores.
Their activities trafficking drugs into the United States behind the DEA's back led both men, key witnesses in the case, to be charged and plead guilty to narcotics-related charges as well as to having lied to authorities, they said.
The testimony came as lawyers for the nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, sought to call into question the informants' credibility in order to have evidence gathered against their clients suppressed.
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Informants admit lying during U.S. probe of Venezuela first lady's nephews
By Nate Raymond | NEW YORK
A father-son team of informants testified on Friday that they repeatedly lied to U.S. investigators in order to secretly traffic drugs, even while they were working on a narcotics probe of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady.
Testifying in Manhattan federal court, the informants also said they engaged in other unauthorized activities, including sleeping with prostitutes in the midst of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) probe of Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores.
Their activities trafficking drugs into the United States behind the DEA's back led both men, key witnesses in the case, to be charged and plead guilty to narcotics-related charges as well as to having lied to authorities, they said.
The testimony came as lawyers for the nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, sought to call into question the informants' credibility in order to have evidence gathered against their clients suppressed.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-usa-crime-idUSKCN11F2U9
