“Fritanga,” a prominent drug trafficker and member of the neo-paramilitary organization Los Urabeños, admitted on Friday to procedural fraud, identity fraud and to having obtained false documents.
Fritanga, who is to be extradited to the United States on charges of drug trafficking, officially “died” in 2010. According to records in the National Civil Registry, Camilo Torres Martinez – the neo-paramilitary’s real name – was listed as “deceased.” It later turned out Fritanga had enlisted a doctor to certify his death in order to avoid attention from the Colombian judiciary.
Colombia’s supreme court said it was “unquestionable that the person captured … is not only alive, but is also the same who is wanted by the government of the United States … it becomes impermissible to assume, like [the defense] proposes, that a ‘dead [person]’ is being processed [when] the summoned Torres Matinez has not died.”
The alleged Los Urabeños member was captured by police during his very own lavish wedding ceremony in Colombia’s Caribbean in July 2012. Police said that the drug trafficker’s wedding party, scheduled to last for around a week, cost an estimated $1.4 million.
- ‘Fritanga’ aceptó cargos por falsedad de documentos públicos (El Espectador)