Colombian police chief General Oscar Naranjo confirms UN allegations of illicit ties between policemen and narco-trafficking gangs in Medellin, the European Press Agency reported Thursday.
In an interview with RCN Radio, Naranjo confirmed the allegations, which were made the previous day in a report issued by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights representative in Colombia, Christian Salazar.
“There is no doubt that the statements from the UN representative are completely true,” the police chief said.
“For the police department, they are shamefully true, who could possibly doubt … that there are officials with ties to these criminal gangs.”
Naranjo explained that hat the police had investigated some specific cases from the UN report, and had brought to justice one official and various police officers for “links to the disappearance of three youths in the city of Medellin.”
On Wednesday, Salazar delivered a report that highlighted a cases where they were able to concretely determine collaboration between the police and criminal gangs.
“We have a series of documented cases of tolerance and cooperation by members of the police with these groups. We knew of one case where the police transported members of a gang in Comuna [neighborhood] 1, and another where the police helped to disappear members of one gang to help another in Comuna 13.”
Salazar added, however, that he does not see this as being a widespread problem within the police force, but isolated actions from a few individuals.