• As a result of this operation, the leader of the organization, Lucio Burbano Portilla was arrested and $ 8,5 billion in cash, 3,700 dollars, luxury watches, firearms and documents with confidential information were seized. Another 9 people were arrested.
• During a visit to Quibdó (Chocó), the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, revealed another important hard blow against the structure known as ‘Los Contadores’. Three of its leaders were arrested.
In response to one of the main lines of action of the 2020-2024 of the Strategic Direction presented by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, which considers the frontal fight against organized crime and drug trafficking as the main illegal source of financing, one of the networks allegedly involved in coordinating the shipment of cocaine from the Pacific was dismantled.
The investigative work of the Office of the Attorney General and Dijin – Gesin of the National Police, with the support of the Navy and the Office of the Attorney General of Ecuador, allowed the identification of all the members of this structure, which would have ties with the Residual Armed Group (Grupo Armado Organizado Residual Gaor) Oliver Sinisterra and other drug trafficking organizations that commit crimes in the region.
As a result of the judicial proceedings carried out in Cali (Valle del Cauca), Tumaco and El Charco (Nariño), 10 people were arrested.
Likewise, as a result of a search warrant carried out in two premises located in the north area of Cali where the leader of the organization, Lucio Burbano Portilla lived, an approximate of $ 8,5 billion in cash, 3,700 dollars, 11 luxury watches, firearms and documents with confidential information about judicial activities were seized.
The money found was in boxes and, according to the investigations, it would be payments received for the shipment of drugs to countries in Central America and the United States.
The 10 people who were arrested in Colombia were brought before a supervisory judge in Cali. A prosecutor from the Special Directorate against Criminal Organizations charged them with different crimes, according to their level of responsibility, such as: criminal conspiracy, trafficking, manufacture, or possession of drugs; and money laundering.
An ‘invisible’ narco
Lucio Burbano Portilla, the alleged ringleader of this drug trafficking organization, would be the coordinator of all criminal activities and for many years he remained off the authorities’ radar. The evidence shows that he was in permanent contact with the residual structure Oliver Sinisterra to guarantee the supply of cocaine in areas near Tumaco (Nariño) and its shipment in boats to Pampanal de Bolívar, in Ecuador.
This person, a demobilized member of the no longer existing self-defense group ‘Libertadores del Sur’, allegedly grouped the shipments of different drug trafficking organizations which paid him in order to transport them to Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.
After one year of investigations, two shipments were seized to this structure. One of them was of 340 kilograms of cocaine, on October 2, 2019 in Pampanal de Bolívar (Ecuador) and another one was of two tons of drugs, on August 3, in Acapulco (Mexico).
Hard blow against ‘Los Contadores’
In Quibdó (Chocó), as part of the territorial strategy to fight crime, the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, revealed that in Imbilí, in the rural area of Tumaco (Nariño), three leaders and three alleged members of the organization ‘Los Contadores’ were arrested. These people will be charged with criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms.
“The Office of the Attorney General with its territorial strategies and its sectorial work, continues producing results to the country,” concluded the Attorney General.
The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.