Colombian police have arrested one of their former agents for narcotrafficking crimes and will extradite him to the United States, local media reported Monday.
Javier Bermudez worked more than 15 years in the investigative branch of the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office but is now wanted in the U.S. for crimes related to drug trafficking.
Maritza Escobar, director of the prosecutor general’s investigative branch, told El Espectador newspaper that Bermudez used his position in the Colombian government to pass information to drug traffickers. He is also under investigation for the murder of an informant who worked with U.S. anti-drug authorities.
Bermudez, who worked in Cucuta near the Venezuelan border, was issued a Red Notice by Interpol, “the closest thing to an international arrest warrant that exists today,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.