Young women were persuaded to carry the drug in prostheses on their breasts and legs in order to deliver the drug in Spain. The Office of the Attorney General, with the support of 12th and 13th units of battalion (Batallón de Operaciones Terrestres) of the Third Brigade of the Army arrested those people investigated in Cali and Medellín.
Among the arrested people, there is a surgical instrument assistant and also a man who tried to pass himself off as a doctor and who apparently performed the surgeries in improvised operating rooms to place the implants with the liquid cocaine.
Upon accepting the conclusive arguments presented by the Office of the Attorney General in the hearings*, the 26th Judge with supervisory functions in Cali (Valle) imposed a detention measure with imprisonment against 10 alleged members of a transnational drug trafficking network known as Los Cirujanos, which sent liquid cocaine to Europe through human couriers or ‘drug couriers’.
These results are part of the investigative strategy to combat all links in the drug trafficking chain and counteract high-impact criminal phenomena that affect public safety, which is developed under the guidelines drawn up by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado.
Network of ‘drug couriers’
According to the investigation that arose from information provided by a human source, the CTI members established that several people who allegedly had a specific role within the criminal organization had conspired for approximately three years to send cocaine to Europe using ‘drug couriers’, specifically to Madrid (Spain), departing from the airports Alfonso Bonilla Aragón in Palmira (Valle del Cauca) and El Dorado in Bogotá.
Based on the evidence, two people linked to the health sector apparently were part of this criminal gang and would be the ones in charge of operating on the women recruited to transport drugs.
It was known that such procedures were performed in improvised operating rooms in motels or studio apartments that were rented for days until the victims recovered after prostheses containing liquid cocaine were implanted in breasts and legs.
A member of the criminal structure selected and recruited the women who would be transporting the drugs by offering them job opportunities in Spain.
The victims were sent on commercial flights to Madrid and then, their prostheses were removed in improvised operating rooms in that city.
Likewise, during the investigation that included surveillance, monitoring of people and wiretappings, it was possible to established that the surgical instrument assistant, who works in a hospital in Cali, and a man who tried to pass himself off as a doctor (not qualified) and who was working as a doctor (virtual assistance for Covid-19 patients) in a renowned hospital in Medellín, apparently participated in the mentioned surgeries.
Prosecution
The Office of the Attorney General brought charges against the 10 people investigated for their alleged responsibility in aggravated criminal conspiracy with drug trafficking purposes. They did not plead guilty to the charges.
People who were sent to prison are identified as:
- Alias el Viejo, alleged ringleader of the organization who was arrested in neighborhood Alameda in Cali
- Alias Andrés, arrested in neighborhood La Hacienda in Cali.
- Alias Leudo, arrested in Medellín (Antioquia).
- Alias Felipe, arrested in neighborhood La Selva in Cali.
- Alias el Doctor, arrested in neighborhood Santa Anita in Cali.
- Alias Maya, arrested in neighborhood Miraflores in Cali.
- Alias Tefa, arrested in neighborhood La Selva in Cali.
- Alias La Maye, arrested in neighborhood El Guabal in Cali.
- Alias Yenifer, arrested in Villa Gorgona, municipality of Candelaria (Valle).
- Alias Camila, arrested in rural area Montebello in Cali.
These people were arrested on November 5 as a result of joint operation carried out by members of the Technical Investigative Corps (CTI) and the 12th and 13th Units of Battalion (Batallón de Operaciones Terrestres) of the Third Brigade of the Army by virtue of a judicial order.
During the proceedings, 14 cell phones and a passport in the name of María Camila Gallego were seized.
The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.
*Several kinds of hearings held in one hearing (known as audiencias concentradas in Spanish)