Colombian authorities seized cash equivalent to $2.3 million from narcotraffickers linked to dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, in Spanish) who did not join the peace process, the Office of the Attorney General reported on November 12.
Authorities found the money in boxes and in “two buildings” located north of the city of Cali (southwest), where the “alleged leader, Lucio Burbano Portilla,” lived. Burbano is accused of sending cocaine to Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, the investigative body said in a statement.
Ten people were captured during the operation and will be investigated for alleged links with a dissident group of the former FARC guerrilla known as Óliver Sinisterra, accused of murdering three members of an Ecuadorean press crew in 2018, among other crimes.
The group is also responsible for murdering six young people on August 22, in a rural area of Tumaco municipality, on the Ecuadorean border, according to authorities.
“A little more than 8.5 billion pesos in cash [$2.3 million], $3,700, 11 luxury watches, firearms, [and] documents with privileged information on the activities of judicial and public force were seized,” the prosecution said in the statement.
The detainees will face charges for “conspiracy to commit a crime; drug trafficking, manufacture, or possession; and money laundering.”
Some 2,300 combatants in several groups are part of the so-called FARC dissidents, who withdrew from the historic 2016 peace accord and mainly engage in narcotrafficking and illegal mining, according to military intelligence.
