Authorities have nabbed the second-in-command of a major narcotrafficking group, as well as a military attorney who was on the group’s payroll.
Marlon Valencia, alias “Ketty,” worked for one of Colombia’s largest and most powerful criminal empires, the Rastrojos. The group’s leader, Luis “Comba” Calle Serna, is one of the eight most wanted men in the country and exports millions of dollars of cocaine to the U.S. every year.
“Ketty” is wanted on extradition charges in the U.S., along with Ramiro Antury, a military lawyer accused of accepting bribes from the Rastrojos for the past ten years. He was arrested in Bogota.
Antury is accused of receiving about $150,900 a month from the Rastrojos, in return for intercepting telephone calls and feeding the information back to narcotraffickers.
The prosecutor in charge of the arrests said the case signaled a need for more internal investigations in Colombia’s national institutions.