A Colombian former judge currently serving time for illegally releasing key narco-traffickers has his sentence halved by the Supreme Court, El Espectador reported Tuesday.
Luis Eduardo Beltran was originally sentenced to 16 years, later reduced to ten, after being convicted of unlawfully releasing several prominent drug traffickers.
The most notable of these are Edgar Salazar Corredor, accused of operating smuggling networks to the Netherlands, and John Fredy “El Indio” Manco Torres, the alleged right hand man of extradited drug lord “Don Mario.”
The sentence of ten years has now been cut to five after the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court considered the Superior Court of Bogota’s punishment to be excessive.
The former judge will nevertheless remain barred from holding public office for over seven years, while he must also pay a fine of over $30,000, reports El Universal.