The Office of the Attorney General imposed precautionary measures on 1,751 assets valued at more than $4.83 trillion. Relatives and alleged front men of the drug trafficker are listed as owners.
As part of the Argenta strategy, launched by the Office of the Attorney General to impact the illicit assets of organized crime and drug trafficking groups, the Specialized Directorate on Assets Forfeiture imposed precautionary measures on 1,751 assets, whose commercial value exceeds $4.83 trillion.
Investigations revealed that the properties had been acquired with money from drug trafficking, among other crimes, committed by Helmer ‘Pacho’ Herrera, capo of the so-called Cartel de Cali.
Precautionary measures such as suspension of power to alienate property and a seizure process were imposed on 67 rural properties, 364 urban properties, 3 companies, 2 commercial establishments, and 878 livestock. The assets were seized in proceedings carried out in joint work by the Office of the Attorney General and the DIJIN of the National Police in Bogotá, Valle del Cauca, Santander, Bolívar, Atlántico, and Caquetá.
One of the properties that stands out is an apartment located in the northeast area of Bogotá, valued at more than $25,000 million.
The evidence indicates that the owners of this millionaire fortune include alleged front men and William Herrera, alias W, ‘Pacho’ Herrera’s nephew. During the arrest of this person, in August 2019, in Cali (Valle del Cauca), deeds and Certificates of Tradition and Real Property Registries were found, among other documents, which listed in detail the properties that his uncle would have hidden in the country.
The evidence has revealed that alias W, apparently, agreed with the ‘Clan del Golfo’ the delivery of 30% of the value of each asset, in order for the criminal structure to help him to recover the property, companies or commercial establishments that would belong to ‘Pacho’ Herrera.
The assets that were seized will be place under the authority of Sociedad de Activos Especiales (SAE).
With this important result, there are two actions led by the Attorney General’s Office against the illicit fortune of ‘Pacho’ Herrera, a member of Cartel de Cali who was assassinated on November 4, 1998 in the Prison of Palmira (Valle del Cauca), where he was serving a 14-year prison sentence for drug trafficking offenses.
The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.
When we speak, results follow.
The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out the criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.