“Fritanga,” a prominent member of the neo-paramilitary organization Los Urabeños, will be extradited to the United States in the coming days on charges of drug trafficking, said Colombia’s Supreme Court on Monday.
According to the court, ten testimonies tied Camilo Torres, alias Fritanga, to the crime of drug trafficking, in addition to multiple maritime drug seizures by the United States Coast Guard.
The neo-paramilitary’s defense argued that Fritanga’s death certificate impeded any possibility of extradition.
“Camilo Torres Martinez is a person who is legally dead and his papers in the Registry indicate this,” said Fritanga’s lawyer.
This argument was rejected by the judiciary, however, after the National Police confirmed that the fingerprints of the accused matched the same fingerprints that had been recorded on Fritanga’s identity card.
According to medical records, Fritanga died of “natural causes” in Colombia’s capital of Bogota in December 2010. However, it was later found that a Bogota-based doctor had helped fake the death certificate of Fritanga and two other prominent drug traffickers.
MORE: Medic faked death of 3 drug lords: Colombia Police
The alleged Los Urabeños member was captured by police during his very own lavish wedding ceremony in Colombia’s Caribbean in July of last year. Police have said that the alleged drug-trafficker’s wedding party, scheduled to last for around a week, cost an estimated $1.41M.
Fritanga was transferred in August 2012 from La Picota prison in Bogota, to the high-security Giron prison in Colombia’s central Santander department, after authorities found out about alleged benefits enjoyed by the neo-paramilitary in the former detention center.
MORE: Drug trafficker transferred over bribery concerns
Los Urabeños is a neo-paramilitary and drug trafficking organization based in the Uraba region of northwestern Colombia.
Sources
- Corte Suprema avala extradición de ‘Fritanga’ a los EE.UU. (W Radio)
- Corte Suprema da luz verde a extradición de alias ‘Fritanga’ (El Tiempo)
- Colombian police arrest ‘drug dealer’ at his wedding (BBC)
