Valencia Cossio uses ‘female friend’ as alibi

Former Medellin chief prosecutor Guillermo Leon Valencia Cossio says he did not meet with drug-trafficker “El Indio” and that he was at a motel with a female friend, Caracol Radio reported Thursday.

Valencia Cossio swore before the Supreme Court ¡that he did not meet with John Freddy Manco Torres, alias “El Indio,” on June 18, 2008, as claimed by the prosecution.

“The night of the 18th of June 2008 I spent in a motel, it’s part a group of hotels that are on the outskirts of the road that goes from Pereira to Armenia,” Valencia Cossio told the court.

Prosecutor Alvaro Osorio inquired as to why Cossio did not call his “friend” to the stand to testify on his behalf.

Valencia Cossio said that he had his reasons, according to Caracol.

The former official also said that he does not know Torres, a known associate of druglord “Don Mario,” except now that these charges are being held against him.

The prosecution believes there is evidence to show that Valencia Cossio was doing an errand for Torres on the night in question.

Valencia Cossio was arrested in 2008 for his alleged links to drug-trafficker Don Mario and forced out as Medellin’s head prosecutor following Cambio magazine’s publication of transcripts of taped conversations between the two men. In October he was designated as a narcotics trafficker by the U.S.

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