Tampa Jury Convicts Leader of Colombian Drug Trafficking Organization

Tampa, FL - A federal jury has found Celso Navarro Diaz (65, Colombia) guilty of conspiring to traffic more than five kilograms of cocaine on vessels subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and conspiring to import more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States. Navarro Diaz faces a minimum penalty of 15 years, up to life, in federal prison for each count. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, 2026. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Navarro Diaz was the head of an organization in Colombia that transported cocaine and marijuana from the Pacific coast of Colombia to Costa Rica. Over a two-year period, Panamanian, Colombian, and U.S. Coast Guard authorities interdicted four of his organization's vessels. The investigation revealed that Navarro Diaz discussed the smuggling operations in heavily coded language and talked about the seizures in coded language after three of the events. The cocaine was intended to be smuggled from Costa Rica through Central America and Mexico prior to importation into the United States. Navarro Diaz was previously convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and pleaded guilty to that offense in 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Region 20 (Tampa) comprises agents and officers from multiple law enforcement agencies with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Colombian National Police. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs and Judicial Attaché Office in Bogotá worked with the Government of Colombia to secure the arrest and September 2024 extradition from Colombia of Navarro Diaz. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Baeza.