Authorities in the strategically important department of Antioquia have refused to give credence to reports of a non-aggression pact between three of Colombia’s most powerful criminal groups, reported Colombian daily El Colombiano Friday.
Antioquia Police Commander Colonel Jose Gerardo Acevedo Ossa has branded the reports “rumors,” highlighting how blood continued to be spilled between the group in important drug production and transportation regions, especially in the northeast of the country.
Acevedo said, “In the northeast, the area where illicit crops and the drug trafficking corridor in to the Uraba and Atlantic coast can be found, a confrontation continues between the Urabeños and Rastrojos.”
Based upon this fact, Acevedo outlined how, even if an agreement had been reached, it did not signal an end to violence anywhere and it was unrealistic to expect it to be sustained in the long term.
Reports of the agreement suggest that a meeting took place between senior commanders of the Urabeños, Rastrojos and Paisas groups in Colombia’s second city Medellin, the capital of Antioquia, where a territory division was agreed to provide each group with an area of unchallenged influence over the drug trade.
Not only does Antioquia host extensive drug crop growing itself, but its central location in the country makes it particularly significant as a connection point between eastern growing regions and the coastal areas where drugs are shipped overseas. According to reports, control of Antioquia was handed to the Paisas as part of the territory divide.