Recent investigations have shed light on a worrying phenomenon that links drug trafficking to the world of Colombian football, especially with regard to schools training young talents.
Through a series of audios in the possession of the Prosecutor’s Office and known to the newspaper Time, Evidence of illicit financing emerged in the acquisition of sports rights of promising soccer players.
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It should be noted that the boss Ferney de Jesús Cardona Bello, known in the underworld as alias Soya, has been identified for his alleged participation in this type of activities, specifically in the investment of money of dubious origin in soccer schools.
One of those academies, The Colo Colo Sports Club confessed the presence of a player close to Soya among its ranksalthough they denied any direct link with the drug trafficker, a person told Cardona Bello in an interview with the media already mentioned above.
This situation is not an isolated case, since various managers of both first and second division teams in the country have expressed their concern.
“To boys from 16 years old are paid up to 20 thousand dollars for their sports rights and they get to train in high-end vans. It is a case that we have already talked about,” the owner of a team in the first division of Colombian soccer told the media.
Due to the above, in an operation focused on unraveling the money laundering and drug trafficking network led by Jhon Fredy Zapata, alias Messi, federal agents obtained crucial information related to Soya and his money laundering network.
This investigation led to another scandal that implicated a former forward of the Colombian National Team, who was part of the Copa América champion team in 2001 and is Elkin Antonio Murillo, who currently runs a soccer school.
Murillo has been linked through a domain forfeiture file, which indicates that he acquired four properties related to companies belonging to alias Messi’s brother.William Guillermo Zapata, alias Yemo.
The assets, purchased at prices significantly below market value, are now under forfeiture proceedings, suggesting Murillo’s possible connection to money laundering activities.
“I bought those assets in 2021. This boy (William Zapata) was not wanted by justice, it seems strange to me that a year later they seized some assets that already appeared in my name,” Murillo commented after the query made by Time to the former player who knew how to shine in several Colombian soccer teams such as Deportivo Cali and Atlético Nacional among several others, in addition to standing out in Ecuador and Peru.
“I knew him as a businessman and playing, one is a soccer person and they invite him everywhere to play. That was here in Armenia, at a friends’ game. “We had had contact in the sense of the passion of football,” added the former forward, who was one of the first basemen in the game against Mexico that was played on the afternoon of Sunday, July 29, 2001 at the El Campín stadium and which ended in victory. of the Tricolor by 1 to 0.
Finally, Murillo added “It is unfair that, if I sell something to you, and a year later I show up with a problem, they are going to take away what you bought with so much effort,” while the case was left in the hands of his lawyer, who said that none of the Zapata brothers made any investment in their training school.
