Salvatore Mancuso, a former leader of paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), was charged with numerous crimes Thursday for his suspected role in over 100 criminal acts, local media report.
He was charged with homicide of a protected person, terrorism, kidnapping, forced disappearance, extortion, and illegal weapon carrying by the Justice and Peace Unit of the Colombian Prosecutor General’s Office.
The charges relate to actions of the paramilitary group that took place in the Norte de Santander department between 1999 and 2002, as part of the AUC Catatumbo block.
Mancuso was extradited to the United States in 2008, where he remains in prison on drug charges.
Five leaders were charged with the same crimes alongside Mancuso: Jorge Ivan Laverde Posada, alias “El Iguano,” Juan Ramon de las Aguas Ospino, alias “Chaca,” Jose Bernardo Lozada Artuz, alias “Mauro,” Isaias Montes Hernandez, alias “Mauricio,” and Jimmy Vitoria Velasquez, alias “Jairo Sicario.”
All of the suspects are being detained in different prisons throughout Colombia, except for Mancuso.
In July, another Colombian court charged the former AUC leader with massacre.
