Colombian police on Thursday halted a hearing for a notorious drug trafficker who was arrested late last year, saying that they had found plans for a possible escape.
Police said they ordered the “temporary suspension” of the hearing of Dairo Antonio Usuga, also known as “Otoniel,” before the Colombian Truth Commission, an extrajudicial body investigating a decades-long conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group that ended with a 2016 peace agreement.
The statement said that police were forced to take this unusual step because, “irresponsibly, the exact description of the place of detention of this individual was made public.”
Photo: AFP / COLOMBIAN NATIONAL POLICE
“Human sources and information gathered by the intelligence services ... warned of plans by the Clan del Golfo to try to organize his escape,” the statement said, referring to the drug trafficking group Otoniel led before his capture.
REVEALING CORRUPTION?
However, some believe that the move was to prevent Otoniel from exposing government corruption in his testimony.
Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro, a leading contender for the next presidential election, called the police move a “seditious act against the truth.”
“The government does not want Otoniel to speak,” he said on Twitter.
Otoniel, 50, was arrested in October in northwestern Colombia’s dense jungle during an operation involving about 700 uniformed agents backed by 18 helicopters.
He is currently being held in an ultrahigh security facility in Bogota, awaiting extradition to the US.
FARC fighters laid down their arms after the group signed a historic peace pact in 2016, bringing an end to more than half a century of armed conflict.
However, Colombia has been gripped by violence, particularly in the past few months, as fighting continues over territory and resources between dissident FARC guerrillas, other rebel groups, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.
Colombia remains the world’s leading cocaine producer, with the US its biggest buyer.
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