Captured drug lord “Fritanga,” a prominent member of the neo-paramilitary group Los Urabeños, has been transferred from Bogota’s La Picota prison to another detention center after reports indicated prison corruption and escape plans, local media reported Tuesday.
Fritanga, whose real name is Camilo Torres Martinez, was sent to the northern Santander department’s high-security Giron prison together with fellow Urabeños member “la Maquina,” who was captured in Bogota in March this year.
Intelligence sources within Colombian prison agency INPEC said the prisoners had allegedly been receiving benefits while in detainment in La Picota, while the same sources revealed “possible escape plans,” newspaper El Tiempo reported.
The neo-paramilitaries are currently awaiting extradition to the United States, where they are facing drug trafficking charges.
Fritanga was captured by Colombian police during his own well-publicized wedding ceremony on a Caribbean island in July.
In other operations realized by INPEC in La Picota Tuesday, 12 mobile phones were expropriated from the so-called Justice and Peace Pavilion, where many high and mid-level paramilitaries are serving their sentences after having reached a peace deal with the government during the 2004-2006 demobilization of the paramilitary organization AUC.