The Office of the Attorney General dealt a hard blow to a drug trafficking structure accused of sending cocaine hydrochloride to Spain

CTI officers, in coordination with the US agency Drug Enforcement Administration DEA, arrested three men in proceedings carried out in Risaralda and Valle del Cauca.

At the request of a prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Drug Trafficking, a judge imposed a measure of deprivation of liberty on four alleged members of a criminal network involved in transporting tons of cocaine through the Colombian Caribbean destined for Spain and other European countries.

People involved are: Arles Velasco Arenas, alleged coordinator of logistics; Alejandro Quintero Marín, who would be one of the transporters of the narcotics; and Carlos Arcesio Vargas Hurtado, who is accused of alerting the movements of the public force and facilitating the transfer of the shipments.

Arcesio Vargas Quiroga was also linked to the process for having illegally transported narcotics  for this organization by land.This person is already deprived of liberty due to another investigation.

During the course of the investigation, it was established that the cocaine hydrochloride left the illegal production areas in Cauca, hidden in caches prepared in tractor-trailers destined for Cartagena and Arjona (Bolívar). Subsequently, it was sent by sea to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain).

Those allegedly involved in the illegal activity were arrested by CTI investigators, with support from the US agency DEA, in Dosquebradas (Risaralda), Yumbo and Palmira (Valle Del Cauca). The Prosecutor’s Office charged them, according to their degree of responsibility, with aggravated trafficking, manufacture or possession of narcotics.

Vargas Hurtado, Velasco Arenas, and Vargas Quiroga pleaded guilty to the charges while Quintero Marín did not plead guilty.

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

The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out 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.