Colombian gets prison in U.S. drug case involving Venezuelan military

A Colombian butcher accused of working with members of the Venezuelan military to facilitate shipments of massive loads of cocaine from South America to the United States was sentenced on Friday to five years in a U.S. prison.Gersain Viafara-Mina, 50, wept as U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan imposed the maximum sentence he faced after pleading guilty in August to participating in a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.His lawyers called Viafara-Mina a decent man who only participated in the drug scheme to support his family and escape guerrilla-controlled territory. But Carter cited the size of the drug-trafficking operation in imposing sentence."I am concerned about the scope of criminal conduct that he engaged in," Carter said.The sentencing came amid a series of U.S. cases and probes linking individuals tied to the Venezuelan government to drug trafficking.The U.S. State Department has called Venezuela a preferred route to traffic cocaine from South America onward due to, among other things, a porous border with Colombia and a "permissive and corrupt environment. More…