A man holding both Colombian and Canadian citizenship was captured last week in an upscale apartment building in El Poblado, one of Medellín’s wealthiest neighborhoods, after months of surveillance by Colombian and American authorities.
According to investigators, the suspect allegedly provided financial backing to the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo), Colombia’s largest and most powerful drug-trafficking organization, which evolved from a right-wing paramilitary group into a cocaine empire that also moves fentanyl, the synthetic opioid driving the US overdose crisis. Officials say he is also linked to Sebastián Marset, a Uruguayan trafficker wanted internationally for running cocaine routes across South America.
The arrest, carried out on September 9, was a joint operation between Colombia’s Seventh Army Division and agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), following roughly nine months of intelligence work tracking the suspect’s movements.
Investigators say he lived a lavish lifestyle while evading capture, driving high-end vehicles and dining regularly at exclusive restaurants in the city. He is now expected to be extradited to the United States, where he will likely face charges tied to the alleged drug-trafficking network.
Read the full investigation at El Tiempo for more details on the case.
Source: Movimientos del capo vinculado al 'clan del Golfo' y a narcotraficante en red de exportación de fentanilo a EE. UU. (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: gruntzooki, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).