A federal jury in Shreveport has convicted 55-year-old Francisco Antonio Colorado-Cessa, AKA 'Pancho', of attempting to bribe a federal judge.

Colorado-Cessa was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official and one substantive count of bribery, by offer or promise, of a public official.

Evidence introduced during his trial revealed that Colorado-Cessa and others conspired in 2013 to pay a $1.2-million bribe to a federal judge in order to secure a reduced sentence for Colorado-Cessa in a related money laundering case. According to court records, at no time was the federal judge involved in the alleged criminal activity.

Here's more information from the trial, courtesy of a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas:

On March 12, 2014, Colorado-Cessa, his son, Francisco Agustin Colorado Cebado (aka “Panchito”), and his business partner, Ramon Segura Flores, all pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bribe a federal judge. On July 22, 2014, visiting United States District Judge Donald E. Walter of the Western District of Louisiana sentenced Colorado Cebado and Segura Flores in Austin to a year and a day in federal prison and ordered them to pay a $10,000 fine for their roles in the scheme.

On February 2, 2015, Judge Walter sentenced Colorado-Cessa in Austin to five years in federal prison. However, in October 2015, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed ColoradoCessa’s conviction and sentence and remanded the case back to the District Court. On December 23, 2015, Judge Walter granted a defense motion for change of venue from Austin and ordered that jury selection and trial occur in Shreveport, LA.

In the related case, on December 10, 2015, a federal jury in Austin convicted Colorado-Cessa of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a scheme to launder millions of dollars in Los Zetas drug distribution proceeds through purchasing, training, breeding and racing American quarter horses in the United States.

Testimony during that trial revealed a shell game by Colorado Cessa, a close associate of the Zetas drug cartel’s top leaders including Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (aka “Z-40”), Oscar Omar Trevino Morales (aka “Z-42”), and others involving straw purchasers and transactions worth millions of dollars in New Mexico, Oklahoma, California and Texas to disguise the source of the drug money and make the proceeds from the sale of quarter horses or their race winnings appear legitimate.

Over 400 quarter horses seized by federal authorities in June 2012 as part of the above mentioned money laundering operation have been sold for approximately $12 million. One of the seized horses, Tempting Dash, winner of the Dash for Cash at Lone Star Park race track in Grand Prairie, TX, in October 2009, sold at an auction for a record $1.7 million in November 2013.

Colorado-Cessa now faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the conspiracy to commit money laundering charge, up to 15 years for the bribery charge, and up to five years for the conspiracy to commit bribery charge. No sentencing dates have been scheduled. Colorado-Cessa will remain in Shreveport under tight security until sentencing is set.

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