Colombia probes paramilitary chief for drug, money laundering involvement

Colombia is investigating a demobilized paramilitary group head for possible involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering, the Attorney General's Office said Wednesday.

Salvatore Mancuso, head of the Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), was put under the probe as a result of the Galloway Shark Operation which began in 2004.

The anti-crime campaign has dismantled a major drug smuggling ring, leading to the arrest of 33 suspects in Italy, 12 in Spain and three in Colombia, respectively, in the cities of Manizales, Cartagena de Indias and the capital of Bogota.

The gang had used laboratories in Colombia's Llanos Orientales region to produce drugs which were then shipped to Venezuela and further to Italy and Spain. The gang also had links in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

Investigators have frozen 45 bank accounts involving a total of 32 million U.S. dollars.

The authorities said that one of the detainees was Celso Salazar, a confidante of Mancuso, who is already in jail awaiting a trial as part of a peace deal.

Mancuso was linked to money laundering through a Gino Pascalli clothing chain, which has branches in the cities of Cali, Medelln, Cartagena de Indias, Barranquilla and Pereira.

Drug smugglers would buy clothes before selling them out at a discount through the shops. Mancuso was also suspected of using a L'enoteca Restaurant, an upscale eatery he owned in Barranquilla, to make profits through money laundering.

Mancuso and four other AUC leaders were arrested in August in the northwest province of Antioquia, days after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said AUC leaders should be placed under arrest until the future of the peace process is defined.

The 31,000-strong AUC, formed in the 1980s, is believed to have engaged in other crimes including massacres, assassinations, kidnappings and torture. After peace talks with the government, the paramilitary group began to lay down arms in 2004. The Uribe administration has endorsed a law to limit prison sentences applied to demobilized AUC members.

Source: Xinhua