Mexican authorities captured narcotrafficker Eduard Fernando Giraldo, alias Boliqueso, in Mexico on April 20, 2022, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced. Giraldo was immediately deported to Colombia and will be extradited to the United States for cocaine trafficking, Colombia’s National Police (PNC) said via Twitter.
“After the capture of [Dairo Antonio Úsuga] alias Otoniel, this is the second most important capture […] of a drug trafficker, who is one of the people who has taken the most cocaine out of Colombia in recent years,” said General Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, PNC director.
Joint work between the Mexican Department of the Navy (SEMAR) and the PNC led to the capture in Mexico City. For months, authorities tracked him in Mexico, where they found boats, vehicles, and luxury apartments linked to Giraldo. Alias Boliqueso, from Colombia’s Valle del Cauca department, “is considered a high-value target for the DEA and Europol [European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation], accused of the crime of international cocaine trafficking. He is also one of the narcotraffickers who inherited the businesses of the now defunct Norte del Valle Cartel,” Colombian President Iván Duque said via Twitter.
Surveillance
In 2020, the PNC alerted SEMAR about Giraldo’s presence in Mexican territory, Mexican magazine Contralíneareported. In July of that year, the PNC informed SEMAR that an associate of Boliqueso would receive a package in Cancún coming from Cali. They also provided the partner’s cell phone number and began georeferencing work.
Giraldo would not stay long at his safe houses in Mexico City, Acapulco, Cancun, and Monterrey, Contralíneareported. The PNC and SEMAR, however, continued to exchange information that led to the location and capture of the criminal in the Coyoacán district, south of the Mexican capital.
Mexican cartels
According to Reuters, Mexican cartels Sinaloa, Zeta, and Jalisco New Generation have emissaries in Colombia and are present in 11 of its 32 provinces.
On April 8, the PNC announced the capture of Mexican drug lord Brian Donaciano Olguín Verdugo, alias Pitt, among the U.S. most wanted drug traffickers, considered a link between the Sinaloa cartel and dissidents of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), who coordinated cocaine shipments to Central America.
In a joint operation between the PNC and the DEA, authorities captured alias Pitt in a Cali apartment, where he was notified of the extradition request from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California for conspiracy to import cocaine, the PNC said.
“When we capture a person with this profile, we are sending a message to all these people who come to Colombia to take control of the drug trafficking business that they will find a police force that affects these emissaries,” the head agent of the operation against alias Pitt told Mexican newspaper El Universal on April 14, while withholding his name for security reasons.
