The National Police identified 175 alleged drug lords who control much of Colombia’s cocaine exports, according to an intelligence report given to W Radio.
The report is the result of a six-month investigation into the suspected elite of the drug trade in Colombia.
The commander of the National Police, General William Salamanca, told the radio station that 35 of these so-called “invisible narcos” have already been arrested.
According to Salamanca, the investigation revealed that the invisible narcos “appear to be successful investors” but in fact “are the ones who are generating insecurity in Colombia and extend their tentacles to Europe.”
The report obtained by W Radio said that the invisible narcos “would be the main contacts for negotiations with transnational networks or emissaries of the Mexican cartels, Italian, Spanish and Balkan mafias, and Brazilian organizations.”
In Colombia, the invisible narcos’ coordinators outsource the production and transport of cocaine to regional drug traffickers and illegal armed groups that secure the delivery of their cocaine to export hubs.
The coordinators would also mediate joint drug trafficking operations with multiple cocaine providers.
Police intelligence report
Illegal armed groups like paramilitary organization AGC and guerrilla group EMC work as the drug trafficking organizations’ “assassination branch” and protect cocaine production facilities, shipments and the invisible narcos.
This structure allows the invisible narcos, who actually own the cocaine, to keep a low profile and pretend their wealth is the result of legitimate enterprises.
The investigation into the invisible narcos was ordered by President Gustavo Petro, who has vowed to combat drug trafficking by targeting the top-level drug traffickers instead of farmers who grow coca, the base ingredient of cocaine.
According to Salamanca, this new counternarcotics strategy has received the support of international police organization Interpol as well as police intelligence organizations from Europe and the Americas.