Valencia Cossio convicted of drug ties

Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio, former Medellin chief prosecutor, was found guilty by Colombia’s Supreme Court of having ties to drug lord and former paramilitary chief Daniel Rendon Herrera, alias “Don Mario,” reports Caracol Radio.

The former official was convicted Thursday of conspiracy, suppression of documents and illicit enrichment.

Valencia Cossio was also found guilty of having ordered a former police commander to exclude the drug trafficker John Freddy Manco Torres, alias “El Indio,” from the police flow chart of Don Mario’s gang, even though he was the drug lord’s second-in-command.

The courts will sentence the disgraced official in the coming weeks.

Valencia Cossio was arrested and forced out of office in 2008 after Cambio magazine published transcripts of taped conversations between him and Don Mario. His brother Fabio was Colombia’s Interior and Justice Minister at that time.

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