Police: 10 arrested over $24m in Bogota car

The Colombian Prosecutor General announced that ten people were arrested in relation to the $24 million in cash found in a car in Bogota on Tuesday.

National police commissioner General Oscar Naranjo said the arrests were the result of “a successful operation coordinated by North American agencies and the [Colombian] police.

The general commented that “for reasons related to operational security, details can not be disclosed” but did say that the arrests were the result of “a big operation against drug trafficking.”

According to Naranjo, authorities have ruled out that the cash stash belongs to Mexican drug trafficker Julio Cesar Piña Soberanis, alias “Julio,” who was arrested in Bogota at the end of August and is believed to have been Mexican narco-trafficker Edgar Valdez Villareal, alias “La Barbie’s” representative in Colombia.

Piña was arrested along with ten others accused of shipping drugs from the FARC to La Barbie’s Beltran Leyva cartel. The arrests are believed to be connected to $28 million in cash found in two cars in Bogota in early September.

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