HomeNewsBriefColombian General Accused of Drug Ties Turns Himself in to US Authorities
BRIEF

Colombian General Accused of Drug Ties Turns Himself in to US Authorities

COLOMBIA / 19 JUL 2012 BY TRACEY KNOTT EN

Colombian General Mauricio Santoyo has turned himself in to US authorities, while a new report suggests that the general may have colluded with drug traffickers for over a decade, including during his time as Colombia’s national security chief.

On July 2, General Mauricio Santoyo flew from Bogota to Washington DC to face charges against him. The retired police general has been charged by the Virginia District Court for collaborating with drug traffickers and paramilitary groups.

Santoyo did not turn himself in immediately following the June 18 announcement of the charges, prompting Virginia judge T. Rawles Jones, Jr., to request the general’s arrest on June 26, reports Colombia’s El Tiempo.

Santoyo will remain in a detention center outside of the capital until he appears before Rawles sometime today. At that time, the retired general will be assigned a permanent detention center where he will remain during the trial, as he has been denied bail.

The accused general has declared himself innocent of all charges.

InSight Crime Analysis

The retired police general worked from 2002 to 2006 as the chief of security for then-President Alvaro Uribe. He is the first Colombian general to be extradited to the US.

Virginia state prosecutors have accused Santoyo of obtaining intelligence through illegal wiretaps, and then passing it on to the Oficina de Envigado crime syndicate to be used to assassinate competitors. They also allege that the general accepted bribes from paramilitary organization the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to facilitate drug shipments to the US.

El Tiempo reports that Santoyo had previously been in contact with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents concerning rumors about his drug trafficking ties. According to the newspaper, Santoyo began meeting with agents in 2011. They met at least three times in Washington and Aruba to discuss accusations that former police officers and paramilitary members had made against him.

While the newspaper reports that the majority of the agents’ questions focused on the period after Santoyo’s work as commander of the anti-kidnapping task force in Medellin (1996-1999), the agents also questioned him about his time as a police attaché to the Colombian embassy in Italy (2008-2009).

The multiple meetings between DEA agents and Santoyo indicate that the investigation against him has been building for some time. Moreover, the widespread focus of the questions themselves suggests that a wider time frame is in question than just Santoyo’s period as security chief. Instead, Santoyo’s work as commander of an anti-terrorism task force from 2000 to 2002 up until his retirement as police attaché could be the basis of charges against him.

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.

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 / 5 OCT 2021

Colombia’s top military commander says 40 percent of ELN and ex-FARC fighters operate in Venezuela, a figure that must be…

COLOMBIA / 23 MAY 2022

A reconfiguration of the groups that control micro-trafficking in Colombia’s capital city is responsible for the series of macabre homicides…

COCAINE / 14 OCT 2021

The governor of Colombia's central department of Meta has survived two back-to-back assassination attempts, a rare case of a continued…

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…