Colombian National Police said that 32 alleged members and collaborators of the drug trafficking group “Los Rastrojos”, among them four policemen, have been captured during the last three days in operations against criminal groups in western and central Colombia, reported Colombian radio station La FM.
The four arrested policemen allegedly “handed over information” to Los Rastrojos, according to Radio Santa Fe.
Radio station RCN wrote on Wednesday that there were actually 55 captures in total, among them an attorney from the western department of Choco, accused of having ties to the illegal group.
The arrests took place in the departments of Huila, Choco, Norte de Santander, Bolivar, Antioquia and Cordoba, during police operations against the so-called bacrim, an official designation for armed illegal groups that arose after the demobilization of the former paramilitary groups.
The drug trafficking organization has been dealt a series of severe blows from Colombian security forces recently including the June arrest of one of the group’s top commanders, Diego Perez Henao, alias “Diego Rastrojo,” and the May surrender of Los Rastrojos’ supreme leader, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, alias “Comba,” to U.S. authorities.
Los Rastrojos is widely considered one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.