The trail of Piedad Córdoba in the conviction against her brother for drug trafficking

Until December 2022, Piedad Córdoba and her brother, Álvaro Córdoba, maintained the same version about the investigation that led the second to be extradited to the United States where he was accused of having been a key link in an illegal business to export high-purity cocaine. , from Colombia to that country. Both insisted that they had nothing to do with those matters and that time would prove his innocence.

However, on January 2, 2023, the story began to change. Although Álvaro Córdoba did not accept any of the charges and his sister continued to defend him from Colombia, that day at the beginning of the year the process took an unexpected turn with the extradited man’s acceptance that he was indeed guilty. Then, 18 days later, Piedad Córdoba died in a hospital in Medellín, after several medical treatments.

This week, Álvaro Córdoba was sentenced to 14 years by a Court of the Southern District of New York and, in the investigation led by prosecutor Damian Williams, the US authorities gave clues to the role that former senator Piedad Córdoba may have had in this illegal network. that managed to disrupt the DEA and Colombian Police officials who participated in the investigation.

Read here the document with which the United States Prosecutor’s Office requested Córdoba’s conviction:

The trap of infiltrated agents

Although the file focused on Álvaro Córdoba, and two of his alleged associates, Amanda Palacio Mena and Alberto Alonso Jaramillo Ramírez, the investigations of the US authorities led to encountering the deceased senator on several occasions. To begin with, the investigation began in March 2020, when several infiltrated agents contacted Amanda Palacio, posing as intermediaries for Mexican cartels.

The intention of these communications was to tell the Colombian woman that they wanted to establish a cocaine export business to the United States, through Venezuela and Mexico. The authorities managed to record more than 300 calls and meetings in physical spaces held by the infiltrated agents and Palacio, who was in charge of introducing Álvaro Córdoba to the supposed envoys from Mexico.

Córdoba’s first contact with agents occurred on July 16, 2021 in a phone call. Palacio Mena was in charge of making the presentation, which included a mention that it was a person with “high contacts in the government.” Although at the beginning of the negotiation there was also talk of participating in an arms trafficking business, by the time Álvaro Córdoba entered the scene, it was clear that the offer was for cocaine.

“It is a win-win for everyone”: Álvaro Córdoba, brother of Piedad Córdoba

In that conversation, Palacio Mena made it clear that he had already told Álvaro Córdoba that the supposed delegates of the Mexican mafia wanted to support Piedad Córdoba, in exchange for his help in carrying out this drug trafficking business. The now convicted man made it clear to them that everything that had to do with his sister had to go through him first and that “politically this could be beneficial for those involved.”

In literal words, Córdoba told them: “It’s a win-win for everyone.” Six days later, Palacio contacted the supposed envoys from Mexico again and warned them that “Mrs. Piedad was going to contact them.” In a teleconference that one of the infiltrated agents recorded, Álvaro Córdoba asked that his sister be linked to the communication. However, it was not clear that it was her, as only a female voice was heard asking if she was talking to the agents.

From then on, the conversations focused on finalizing the shipments of the narcotic, the logistics for the payment of the money and other logistical issues, such as where the cocaine would come from. According to the investigation, the illicit substance would be produced by the FARC guerrilla, under the command of a commander alias Martín. Another key issue that became evident in this case is that, during the negotiations, Palacio and his accomplice claimed to have contacts with the Cartel of the Suns.

According to the United States justice system, it is a drug trafficking group made up of high-ranking Venezuelan officials, who “abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted their legitimate institutions,” among which are the military forces, the intelligence apparatus and the legislative branches. and judicial. The deal that Palacio and Córdoba proposed to the infiltrated agents was that, with the support of that illegal network, and their contacts in Colombia, the cocaine could go through Venezuela to Mexico, without any control from the authorities.

To that end, the role played by Alberto Alonso Jaramillo Ramírez, a retired police officer who worked in Anti-Narcotics for several years, was key. According to a document from the United States Attorney’s Office, the former agent would have put his contacts in the public force at the service of criminals so that hundreds of drug shipments would move throughout the country without any state control. Both Jaramillo and Palacio were extradited to the United States, but both accepted charges long before Córdoba.

The months between June and September passed between calls and meetings in Medellín. One of them included the visit of a chemist who gave other details to the infiltrated agents, such as the purity that the cocaine could have and that it was a scientific process that he supervised. Another key mention of Piedad Córdoba in the investigation is related to another call that the DEA recorded.

The meeting with Piedad Córdoba

The short conversation occurred on September 3, 2021. What the US Attorney’s Office reported during the process is that, by that time, several details of the criminal network were already clear, for example, that the cocaine would leave by plane and the money I would return on that same aircraft. With those points clear, Córdoba called his sister and passed the phone to one of the undercover agents.

The investigation indicates that at that point the deceased senator invited that official and his colleagues to a meeting in Bogotá. Of course, Álvaro Córdoba explained to the infiltrators that his sister’s phone could be intercepted, so there were topics that they could not discuss on the phone. Thus, the appointment took place on September 23, 2021 at a political event in the country’s capital.

The meeting was evidenced by a photo in which the agents’ identities were eliminated for security reasons. The United States Prosecutor’s Office specified about this meeting that Palacio reminded Piedad Córdoba that she had already spoken with the agents in previous weeks. However, the investigators did not provide more details of the meeting, but they contributed the photo to the file against Álvaro Córdoba.

The cocaine sample

After the meeting in Bogotá, those now convicted and the agents returned to Medellín to coordinate the delivery of proof of the cocaine that they were supposedly going to market. Finally, on December 17, 2021, at a farm on the outskirts of the city, DEA agents received the sample of the narcotic that showed a purity between 86.6% and 89.1%.

The evidence of that delivery was also left in a photograph within the evidence of the case. As promised, the infiltrated agents delivered US$15,000 to Palacio, Jaramillo and Córdoba. Two months later, when they finished closing the deal, the three Colombians were captured by agents who had been negotiating for a year as alleged liaisons for Mexican cartels.

The arrests occurred on February 2, 2022 and, with them, the defense of the Córdoba brothers that they had nothing to do with what they were accused of. Now, Álvaro Córdoba must serve 14 years in prison in the United States, and he will have to be under surveillance for four more years after he completes his sentence. The amount of his trend was more than double what he expected, since the US Attorney’s Office made it clear that, for those who are linked to violent groups dedicated to drug trafficking, such as the FARC, the penalty will be severe.

As for her sister, the Liberal Party senator died in a clinic in Medellín in January of this year, after facing several illnesses in recent years that affected her quality of life. Neither the United States nor Colombia ever linked her to the investigation that led her brother to prison, however, the Supreme Court of Justice investigated her 15 years ago for her alleged illegal links with the FARC.

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