Security agencies have uncovered a plot from prison by Daniel ‘Don Mario’ Rendon Herrera against the police officers that captured him in Uraba on 14 April.
Colombia’s RCN news channel reported that third parties said that ‘Don Mario’ was trying to get closer to drug dealers held in different prisons across the country in order to promote a campaign of accusations against the officers involved in his capture.
One of these alleged attempts to improve ties with others was supposedly done with Gildardo Rodríguez Herrera, also known as ‘the man in the red shirt’, a confidant of ‘Don Diego’, who is being held in Valledupar Prison.
Rodríguez Herrera said that intelligence agencies have offered him almost half a million dollars for his defense in exchange for false testimony to implicate Dijin and Police Intelligence agents, including director General Oscar Naranjo.
The General said that it was natural for drug traffickers and criminals to develop plots such as these to smear his name and attack officers that have put them behind bars in attempts to impede their own trials, reported W Radio.
Other soldiers who directly participated in the capture of ‘Don Mario’ remain in Colombiar under special protection. However, Colonel Germán Jaimes, one of the men who led the operation against the drug lord, has left Colombia under the DEA’s care.
Rendon Herrera has denied any plot and continues to proclaim his innocence, reports W Radio. “I am in a hallway [under all sorts of security measures], you can ask Inpec (government prison system) about them,” he said.