A Colombian national has been sentenced, and another has pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida for their involvement in the kidnapping and assault of two U.S. Army soldiers in Bogotá, Colombia.
Pedro Jose Silva Ochoa, 47, received a sentence of 27 years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person in December 2024. Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, 35, also pleaded guilty to the same charge but awaits sentencing. The court will determine her sentence based on U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
"Protecting Americans, wherever they may be throughout the world, is of paramount importance," stated Supervisory Official Antoinette Bacon from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. She emphasized that acts against U.S. military personnel would not go unanswered.
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida assured that kidnappings and assaults against U.S. service members are intolerable: "We will identify you; we will find you; and we will prosecute you as aggressively as the law permits."
Brett D. Skiles, Acting Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Miami Field Office, highlighted the international cooperation involved: "Our close cooperation with Colombian and Chilean law enforcement authorities was essential to this international investigation’s success."
Court documents reveal that Silva Ochoa and Uribe Chiran, along with co-defendant Jeffersson Arango Castellanos, targeted two U.S. soldiers who were incapacitated with drugs while visiting a pub in Bogotá on March 5, 2020. They were kidnapped for their valuables and financial information.
Silva Ochoa was extradited from Chile to the United States in April 2024, while Uribe Chiran was extradited from Colombia in September 2024. Arango Castellanos was extradited earlier from Colombia in May 2023; he pleaded guilty in January 2024 and received a sentence of 48 years and nine months imprisonment.
The FBI Miami Field Office led the investigation with significant assistance from various departments within the Justice Department as well as Colombian and Chilean authorities.
Trial Attorneys Clayton O’Connor and Elizabeth Nielsen from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section alongside Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertila Fernandez are prosecuting this case.