A Honduran man who admitted helping transport more than a ton of cocaine and was said to have survived several attempts on his life will be sentenced in federal court in Richmond on Monday.
Though facing a maximum term of life in prison, sentencing guidelines call for Willian Medina-Escobar, 34, to serve roughly 23 to 27 years in prison for conspiring to possess, with the intent to distribute, five kilograms or more of cocaine on a U.S.-registered aircraft. The guidelines are not binding on U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, who will impose a sentence.
The government said that around 2011, Medina-Escobar, who has no prior criminal record, joined Los Cachiros, a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization, and helped transport cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras using aircraft.
The case is apparently related to those of two Guatemalans sentenced in federal cases in Richmond: Fernando Chang Monroy, 39, and Luis Garcia-Orellana, 50, both of whom were implicated in the purchase of aircraft in Virginia. Chang Monroy was sentenced to 22 years and Garcia-Orellana to 20 years.
According to government sentencing documents, Medina-Escobar lived most of his life in Honduras and fled to Guatemala only after the gang he worked for tried to kill him in 2016.
