• The Office of the Attorney General will accompany the inter-institutional work in the main operational fronts against organized crime in the country by conducting precautionary measures such as assets seizure processes and investigative activities against money laundering.

 • In Francisco Pizarro (Nariño), the Attorney General also announced an important result against drug trafficking and highlighted the benefits of extradition in the fight against transnational crime.

• In addition, he revealed details of the seizure of assets belonging to the illegal structure that was involved in the crime of 8 people in Samaniego (Nariño).

In the last 24 hours, the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, and his executive staff visited two of the most important fronts against organized crime in the country.

In Caucasia, Bajo Cauca Antioqueño, they met with the military forces and the National Police to learn about and review the progress of campaign named ‘Campaña Aquiles’ which aims at persecuting and affecting the Clan del Golfo, Los Caparros and other groups that would be the responsible for attacks against human rights defenders, murders and environmental crimes in that region.

Later, in Tumaco (Nariño), the results obtained in the campaign ‘Campaña Atlas’ were evaluated. Joint plans were designed to close the drug exit corridors from the Colombian Pacific coast to Central America and the United States.

The Attorney General traveled from this place to the rural area of ​​Francisco Pizarro (Nariño), where the public force is moving forward towards eradicating illicit crops. There, he announced the launch of the strategy ‘Argenta’ that seeks to strengthen the fight against crime by affecting the illicit assets of these organizations. In this sense, ‘Argenta’ will be accompanied by investigative activities aimed at seizing assets. Actions that are focused on revealing money laundering operations and discovering the maneuvers used by delinquency to hide resources derived from their actions.

Assets seizure process due to double murder

During the visit to Nariño, the Attorney General revealed that the Special Directorate on Assets Seizure of the Office of the Attorney General imposed precautionary measures such as suspension of power to alienate a property and a seizure process on 20 assets, valued at more than 2.5 billion that they would belong to the illegal structure responsible for the crime of 8 people in Santa Catalina de Samaniego (Nariño).

The properties were seized in proceedings carried out in Samaniego (Nariño), Puerto Asís (Putumayo) and Jamundí (Valle del Cauca). Among the assets, there is a property where the criminal activity that took place on August 15, 2020 was allegedly planned.

International cooperation against crime

The Attorney General also highlighted the advantages of extradition as an international cooperation mechanism, which has allowed progress in the transnational fight against criminal phenomena such as drug trafficking.

In the last 12 months, 171 people wanted for extradition purposes have been located (138 in 2020 and 33 since the beginning of 2021). In this period, 134 formal proceedings (to turn people in to the requesting countries) have been conducted after fulfilling the diplomatic and legal terms and instances (122 in 2020 and 12 in 2021).

Since his appointment, the Attorney General Barbosa Delgado has signed 205 arrest warrants for extradition purposes.

In the first days of February of this year, 11 people wanted for drug trafficking offenses in the United States, Spain, Brazil, and Peru were arrested. These people were located in proceedings carried out in conjunction with the National Police in Bogotá, Barranquilla (Atlántico), Pereira and Belén de Umbría (Risaralda), Planadas (Tolima), Medellín (Antioquia), Granada (Meta) and Cajicá (Cundinamarca).

 ‘Los Contadores’

The investigative work carried out by the Office of the Attorney General against “Los Contadores” revealed one of the main sources of illegal financing of this criminal structure in Nariño.

In the jungle area of ​​Tumaco, in the sector known as El Guabal, the dissident group had a drug trafficking complex in which it processed more than 4 tons of narcotic drugs each month. These drugs were transported from the Colombian Pacific to Central American countries with the final destination the United States.

Members of the Technical Investigative Corps (Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación CTI) of the Special Directorate against Criminal Organizations, in joint work with the National Navy and the National Army, arrived at the gigantic laboratory. More than a ton of cocaine was seized.

Moreover, solid and liquid supplies such as gasoline, 1,135 gallons of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid, among others were found. They also discovered machinery to expand the illicit production, two firearms and 39 different tags used to mark each of the cocaine blocks.

With this result, more than 8 billion of illegal incomes of ‘Los Contadores’ were seized.

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