Former soldier Julio Cesar Parga Rivas, who has been held in a U.S. jail on narco-trafficking charges since March 18, 2009, has been acquitted of all charges, the regional newspaper Diario del Huila reported on Thursday.
Paga served as Chief of the elite Gaula unit in the department of Cordoba when he was captured and extradited to the United States in 2009.
“He was able to demonstrate through his lawyers that he is completely innocent of all charges against him, including the shipment of cocaine to the United States, something he has never done,” a brother of the former officer of the Huila department said.
According to Diario del Huila, the Colombian Prosecutor General’s Office has ordered the arrest of Parga for his alleged involvment in the “false positive” case in the department of Cordoba in 2007. The former soldier is accused of ordering the killing of five men who were later falsely presented as guerrillas killed in combat.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is awaiting Parga’s return in order to begin the process.