http://www.sharedresponsibility.gov.co/?idcategoria=603
Inside a Cocaine Dealer's Computer
Akin to opening Pandora’s box, investigations into the computer of “ Jorge 40”, one of the top Colombian paramilitary leaders, unveil surprising secrets about the cocaine trade into Europe. Colombian, Venezuelan and Spanish authorities were apparently involved.
The computer in question belonged to Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40”, one of the leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary group financed by trafficking cocaine and operating in northern Colombia. This group, however, is currently undergoing a disarmament process with the Colombian government.
Confiscated from his closest assistant Edgar Ignacio Fierro, alias “Don Antonio”, and now in the hands of the Colombian Attorney General, this computer contains detailed financial information about Jorge 40’s organization, including a complete “handbook” on how to deliver cocaine to Europe, which implicates Colombian and Venezuelan authorities.
The Colombian Attorney General is thoroughly investigating the entire contents of this computer, which contains lists of murders, bribes to local authorities, contacts made with members of Colombia’s congress, among other shocking revelations. Up to now, no official indictments have been issued.
Despite the well-known connection between cocaine and Colombia’s illicit armed groups, specific information about how paramilitary groups operated -- their international contacts, drug transit routes and the destination of their cocaine shipments – was relatively poor. Emails and documents extracted from Jorge 40’s computer reveal that the main destination for the paramilitary group’s cocaine was not the United States, as previously thought, but Europe.
Three Ways to Send Cocaine to Europe
The computer’s files describe three low-risk methods the paramilitaries used to dispatch their cocaine to Europe.
1. A man by the name of Juan Carlos Infante, alias “Cabezón”, gathered processed cocaine consignments from the laboratories owned by the paramilitaries in La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and took them to ports in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Barranquilla, located on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Once there, “montadores” (those who loaded cocaine), concealed it in banana containers headed to Belgium, Holland and France. As reported by the Colombian magazine Semana, a recorded conversation between the “montadores” and “Don Antonio” revealed that every banana box was loaded with 200 grams of cocaine and each container transported 1,080 boxes. This means that between 140 and 180 kilos of cocaine were transported per container.
During this conversation, the drug traffickers also mention that they paid certain antinarcotics police officers in Cartagena a 780 dollars per kilo bribe, while in Santa Marta, they paid 650 dollars per kilo for dispatching cocaine to Belgium.
According to information in “Jorge 40´s computer, corroborated by the Attorney General, this paramilitary group delivered cocaine tree times per week. Once the cocaine reached Belgium, AUC contacts were in charge of unloading and distributing the drug to other European countries, such as Holland and France.
2. “Don Antonio” and the AUCs also had an agreement with the owner of a small furniture factory, located in Medellín, to conceal cocaine in furniture to be exported to Spain from northern Colombian ports. An agent of the furniture factory then made contact with members of the Spanish police to guarantee that the cocaine would pass all security and customs controls
3. Sending human “mules” to Spain via Venezuela was the third method documented in the computer. Three times a week, groups of four people, each carrying 10 kilos of cocaine in their luggage, traveled first class to Caracas. Once in Caracas, these groups were received by members of the Venezuelan police, who would guarantee then a safe trip to Madrid.
Semana magazine references a computer document estimating that every kilo of cocaine put in Venezuela had a value of 2,500 dollars. After deducting the percentage paid to the “mule” and to police, “Don Antonio’s” income per kilo placed in Spain still ranged between 9,000 and 10,000 euros. Imagine just how many guns those euros could buy.
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