Alleged corruption in Colombia’s judicial branch is hampering criminal investigations into the fugitive matriarch of the Gnecco crime family.
Cielo Gnecco was supposed to be in jail since October 10 to await trial for her alleged role in two homicides in her native Cesar province in 2002.
However, “we did a raid on her home and her office, but Mrs. Cielo wasn’t there,” a prosecution official told newspaper El Tiempo.
Prosecution leaks
According to El Tiempo and Noticias Uno, someone within the prosecution warned the Gnecco family matriarch about the arrest warrant filed by Valledupar prosecutor Alberto Ramirez on October 6.
Since then, her whereabouts are unknown.
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According to El Tiempo, Gnecco is being protected by a network of elite families from Cesar and the neighboring La Guajira province.
Sources close to the crime family told W Radio that Gnecco had left the country and would reappear once she was cleared of criminal charges.
The next alleged corruption scandal broke on Tuesday when Valledupar prosecutor Nancy del Carmen Martinez, a former intelligence official, surprisingly revoked her colleague’s arrest warrant.
The same prosecutor tried to shelf the entire homicide investigation in January, according to local media.
The controversial move embarrassed Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa, who said that Martinez had revoked the arrest warrant “without consultation.”
“The Cesar district director has already ordered proceedings in order to charge this official before the Anti-Corruption Unit,” Barbosa told reporters.
Curiously, “the investigation was immediately reassigned to the National Directorate for Human Rights,” the chief prosecutor added.
Supreme Court leaks
Alleged corruption in the investigations into the Gnecco Clan has also begun to affect the credibility of the Supreme Court, which absolved former Senator Jose Alfredo Gnecco, the nephew of the family matriarch, in January.
Supreme Court magistrate Francisco Farfan requested a three-month unpaid leave on Tuesday.
Farfan previously asked Congress’ Accusations Committee to investigate evidence suggesting that he had warned Gnecco about his order to wiretap the phone of her nephew as part of an election fraud investigation in 2019.
Supreme court magistrate allegedly tipped off crime family over investigation
Following his investigation request, the Supreme Court announced that Farfan was investigating the two House representatives that were investigating him.
The Supreme Court magistrate subsequently recused himself of all political corruption investigations and asked the court for a leave.
Meanwhile, four of the magistrate’s former assistants sued Farfan for firing them in response to the leak that revealed his alleged involvement in sabotaging the election fraud investigation.
The scandals appear to have done little harm to the Gnecco Clan’s political power in Cesar.
Clan governor candidate Elvia Milena Sanjuan easily won’t Sunday’s regional elections and her ally, Ernest Miguel Orozco, was elected mayor of Valledupar.