Colombia’s police said Saturday they have called a former security chief for former President Alvaro Uribe for questioning over his suspected ties to drug traffickers. The police general is the second of Uribe’s former security chiefs suspected of having ties to drug trafficking groups.
National Police chief Jose Roberto Leon announced Saturday he had ordered General Flavio Buitrago to explain why he appeared on sound recordings with a former member of the Medellin Cartel, led by Pablo Escobar until his death in 1993.
The announcement of the investigation of the active police general followed that of the 66-year old Marcos Gil, alias “El Papero,” who was arrested earlier this week to face drug trafficking charges in both the U.S. and Colombia.
Buitrago succeeded retired General Mauricio Santoyo as Uribe’s security chief. Santoyo late last year admitted to having leaked confidential information to the “Oficina de Envigado” a Medellin-based drug trafficking organization founded by Escobar and later commanded by “Don Berna,” one of the most prominent members of paramilitary organization AUC.
MORE: Former Colombia Police General sentenced to 13 years in US prison
Dozens of lawmakers and top officials of the two Uribe administrations have been convicted since the breaking of the “parapolitics” scandal that exposed extensive ties between the AUC and the army, now-defunct intelligence agency DAS, the police, prosecution offices, Congress and the President’s Office.
Among those convicted for their ties to paramilitary groups are the former president’s cousin Mario Uribe, former DAS director Jorge Noguera, the brother of Uribe’s then-Interior and Justice Minister, and the brother of the former Foreign Minister. Under investigation are Uribe himself, his brother, and several former top Presidency officials.
FACT SHEET: Parapolitics