The signed document contemplates the creation of an elite team to prosecute all the illicit conduct associated with money laundering; and seeks to promote asset forfeiture to affect assets derived from criminality.

The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, and the United States Ambassador to Colombia, Philip S. Goldberg, signed a memorandum of understanding to create a plan to strengthen the investigation and prosecution in cases of money laundering and related crimes.

“The relationship between the Attorney General’s Office and the United States Embassy, ​​and the American Government is a very important relationship. They are our strategic partners, we work together since it is the support of common principles that we share on this continent”, emphasized the Attorney General.

This document strengthens the cooperation ties between the institution and the Government of the United States, through the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section INL and it will allow having different tools to impact transnational organized crime and drug trafficking groups that commit crimes from Colombia.

“My dear prosecutor, we appreciate your team´s disposition and we believe that by working together, we can continue building and strengthening the policy of the fight against drug trafficking and against the financing of terrorism in order to provide greater security to our countries”, stated the United States ambassador when reaffirming the benefits of a joint work carried out with the Prosecutor’s Office.

In this sense, the memorandum will allow joining investigative efforts to decipher complex money laundering schemes; promote strategies to increase seizure of assets; and create an elite group to go after the structures linked to money laundering.

“This project is the most ambitious on money laundering issues in the history of the bilateral collaboration. The project aims to create the training curriculum, as well as to create a permanent team to investigate and prosecute complex money laundering schemes; as well as loss of ownership of property”, stated Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg.

In the last two years, the Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges for the crime of money laundering and other associated behaviors, for actions that involve 12 billion pesos (3 billion dollars); and precautionary measures have been imposed for the purpose of seizure of assets, shares and financial products amounting to 22 billion pesos (6 billion dollars).

“In these two years and one month, I have signed 347 arrest warrants for extradition purposes, we have arrested 274 individuals for extradition purposes and we have handed over 301 extraditable individuals for the purpose of appearing before the justice of the United States of America”, emphasized the Attorney General when revealing other achievements thanks to the cooperation with the United States.

The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.