Colombia's police arrested 23 of their own officers, 15 of them accused of working with drug trafficking gang the Rastrojos.
The officers allegedly helped the group transport drug shipments from the southern city of Cali to the Caribbean island of San Andres. From there, the cargo would be taken by speedboat to Honduras or Nicaragua, and then on to the U.S.
Meanwhile, eight members of the police were arrested in Bogota and Villavicencio on suspicion of stealing a drug shipment belonging to the now-deceased leader of trafficking organization the Popular Revolutionary Antiterrorist Army of Colombia (Ejercito Revolucionario Popular Antiterrorista Colombiano - ERPAC).
The officers seized a 500 kilo load of cocaine, thought to belong to Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, alias "Cuchillo," in June 2010. They allegedly falsified a report of the seizure, and kept more than half the haul.
Police chief General Oscar Naranjo said that his force was "implacable against corruption."
The arrests follow the detention of 39 alleged members of the Rastrojos on Colombia's Pacific coast earlier in the month, many of them police and army officials.
SUBSCRIBE