The director of the national police announced the arrest of 26 drug traffickers, including five civil aviation officials Thursday for their part in a Colombian drug lord’s network, although their boss remains unpursued.
Of those traffickers arrested, four men were sought outside Colombia for extraditable charges. The traffickers were part of a network that shipped drugs to North America via civillian aircraft.
The traffickers were accused of working for Henry Jesus Londoño alias “Mi Sangre” a former paramilitary and central figure in Medellin‘s drug cartel. Authorities said that Mi Sangre is believed to run a drug network with agents in Honduras, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama and Colombia. Mi Sangre is believed to be behind death threats received by a Colombian journalist after she published a story outing his identity.
Mi Sangre is also a member of the Office of Envigado, the group of drug kingpins who sought to control the Medellin drug cartel after the death of Pablo Escobar.
Announcing the arrest, National Police Director General Oscar Naranjo commented that while Mi Sangre is widely believed to be running a large part of the Medellin drug cartel, there is currently no warrant for his arrest.