Authorities arrested the former security chief of Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe for the police general’s alleged ties to a Bogota crime lord.
Six months after linking retired police general Flavio Buitrago to convicted drug trafficker Marco Gil, alias the ‘Papero,’ officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office carried out the arrest.
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According to the website of weekly Semana, the order followed declarations made by Gil and others, as well as over $300,000 of income unaccounted for in Buitrago’s bank account, and an attempt by Buitrago to renew his visa in order to travel to the United States. The ultimate action led the attorney’s office to order his arrest to prevent him from fleeing an investigation.
According to reports from local media, Buitrago’s wife, Elba Pulido, had a commercial relationship with Gil through a business known as Constructora America, that the convicted drug trafficker started in 2006.
Buitrago has claimed his only contact with the drug trafficker was in 1997 when he was commander of the Bogota police force and he helped rescue Gil’s daughter after a kidnapping.
Buitrago is Uribe’s second security commander to be under investigation for ties to criminal groups. Former General Mauricio Santoyo is in prison in the United States after pleading guilty to aiding paramilitary groups while working for the former president.
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