Colombian Man Arrested In Pot Raids Will Soon Be Released
DENVER (CBS4) – The only man arrested in the November marijuana raids will soon be released from jail.
Hector Diaz was arrested Nov. 22 at his Cherry Hills Village home during an early morning raid.
Diaz was seen in a photo holding several weapons. Despite the photo Diaz was told he will be allowed to be released but must pay a $25,000 cash bond, turn over his passport and stay in a place where he can be monitored by GPS.
Diaz is from Barranquilla, Colombia and has become part of the investigation into whether a drug cartel from that country has entered Colorado's marijuana industry.
Federal investigators believe they have evidence of conspiracy to traffic marijuana, money laundering, and maintaining drug involved premises.
At least 16 locations were hit in the raids in which marijuana, cash, records and other items were recovered.
A search warrant lists 10 target subjects but not Diaz.
One man who is listed is Juan Guadarrama who was seen in a Miami Herald article about his conviction in a jewelry theft ring. According to news reports, his arrest warrant indicated he told an undercover officer he had two marijuana grow houses in Colorado and even showed the agents them via a live video feed from a nanny-cam to his phone.
He also allegedly asked the undercover agents to travel to Colorado to pick up 20 pounds of marijuana a month to be distributed in the Miami area.
Guardarrama got a reduced sentence in return for cooperating with authorities.
He went by the name Tony Montana, taken from the name of a character in the movie "Scarface."
Authorities don't know if he is connected to Diaz in any way.
