The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has seized computers from DNE, the Colombian drug agency accused of abusing the control of confiscated mafia assets, to determine whether members of Congress were third party beneficiaries of the corruption.
Fourteen members of Congress are being investigated by the judicial body for irregularities found in the awarding of land that was being administered by the allegedly corrupt National Direction of Narcotics (DNE), the agency in charge of handling assets seized from drug lords.
According to an announcement from the Comptroller General Sunday, the DNE cost the state at least $2.7 million for falsely reporting the value of a seized ranch in the coffee region department of Caldas. Directors of the agency apparently appraised the “Japon” ranch at a value of around $11,000 when it actually values in the millions.
The ranch was leased by DNE directors to business owners who used it to raise cattle.
Colombia’s government is working on a decree that will dismantle the corrupt commodities agency, but DNE director Aniano Iglesias still retains a function in the organization despite Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras’ order to remove the potentially corrupt manager from the scandal-racked agency.