HomeNewsBriefColombia Arrests Member of 'Drug Trafficking Directors Board'
BRIEF

Colombia Arrests Member of 'Drug Trafficking Directors Board'

COLOMBIA / 20 JAN 2012 BY GEOFFREY RAMSEY EN

Colombian police have captured Luis Fernando Otalvaro, alias “El Matematico,” believed to be a mid-level boss of an influential transnational drug trafficking network.

The deputy director of Colombia’s police intelligence service (DIJIN), Luis Humberto Poveda, said that Otalvaro was arrested on January 17 in a Medellin airport as he attempted to board a plane bound for Cali.

According to Humberto, Otalvaro was a lieutenant in the Junta Directiva del Narcotrafico, or Drug Trafficking Directors Board, a group which is responsible for sending drug shipments from Colombia to the United States via Central America. The Junta, also known as the El Dorado Cartel, was led by Luis Agustin Caicedo Velandia, alias “Don Lucho,” until his arrest in June 2010.

InSight Crime Analysis

As InSight Crime has reported, the Junta is believed to have worked with one of Colombia's most powerful drug kingpins, Daniel Barrera, alias "El Loco,” shipping up to 8 tons of cocaine a month to Europe and the US at its peak. The group is also accused of laundering millions of dollars through Colombian soccer teams.

Police also claim that that the group has links to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the 43rd Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The case of the Junta is a good illustration of the changing dynamics of the hemispheric drug trade. Today, the heavy hitters are the Mexican groups, who hold a far larger share of the market and are becoming increasingly active in controlling the flow of drugs through Central America. While more powerful Colombian groups like Barrera's network are active outside the country, like the Junta they generally rely on connections to a number of criminal organizations in other countries to move their product, This is a far cry from the criminal landscape of the 1980s, when it was dominated by large Colombian cartels who paid Mexicans to transport drugs across the border into the US.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 14 JUN 2022

The Colombian army has killed two more important dissident FARC leaders in the north and the west of the country.

COLOMBIA / 22 DEC 2022

InSight Crime's GameChangers 2022 looks back at the most consequential criminal stories across Latin America this year.

COCAINE / 7 JUL 2022

Ahmet Yilmaz* shouldn’t be in a dangerous profession. He’s not a cop or a criminal. Ahmet is a banana importer…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…