BURTON, New Brunswick — The fifth South American charged with conspiracy to commit a jailbreak in New Brunswick was convicted Monday and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Four other South Americans pleaded guilty to the same charges last December and were each sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Tito Sanchez Ruiz, also known as Roberto San Vincente, was arrested with three other men in Edmundston, New Brunswick, last September. A fifth man was arrested a day later in Saint John, New Brunswick.

All five Colombians were charged with conspiracy in an attempt to remove from a New Brunswick jail two Colombians arrested in April 1989 when their plane, loaded with 500 kilos of cocaine, crash-landed near Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Jose Ali-Galindo Escobar and Fernando Augusto Mendoza Jaramillo each pleaded guilty last November to bringing $250 million worth of cocaine into Canada and each was sentenced to 22 years in jail.

Escobar is reputed to be the personal pilot of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who was also believed to have hatched the escape plan, according to prosecutors in previous court action.

Three other men involved in the conspiracy to bring the cocaine to Canada are involved in another trial in Montreal. That trial has been under way for seven weeks. Those men — Richard Delgado Marquez of New York City, Fernando William Mendoza and Emilse Mery-Correa, both Colombians — were arrested last April also.

They are charged with the import and export and trafficking of cocaine and posession of a narcotic for trafficking.

A police informant working with a Colombian drug cartel brought down the operation. After authorities confiscated the cocaine at Fredericton, most of it was exchanged for sugar before the drugs were delivered to Montreal.

Ruiz, who has maintained he was on legitimate business in Canada, was convicted and sentenced Monday by Justice Ronald Stevenson in New Brunswick Court of Queens Bench.

According to a court spokesman Tuesday, Stevenson did not believe Ruiz’s story. The evidence, especially the confiscated equipment, was overwhelming. When the four men were arrested in Edmundston last September they were in possession of numerous automatic and semiautomatic weapons, ammunition, explosives, forged passports, a large amount of cash and tools.

Police stopped and arrested the four men on a tip by a resident who reported they were asking many questions and were acting suspicious.

Ruiz’s attorney has said he will appeal the conviction.