A years-long legal battle over a small shop in Bogotá’s Santa Bárbara Mall has unraveled a much bigger story involving money laundering and one of Colombia’s most secretive drug lords. An elderly merchant recently asked a Bogotá court to return his business, which authorities seized in 2021 as part of an asset forfeiture case. But the Superior Tribunal of Bogotá rejected his claim, ruling that he had waited too long to file it.
According to court records reviewed by El Tiempo, the shop—officially listed as unit 106, or C134—is tied to an active federal investigation dating back to 2007. Prosecutors allege the property may have been purchased with proceeds from drug trafficking operations run by Hernán Prada Cortés, a Colombian narco known by the aliases “El Ramazote” and “Papito.” Prada Cortés is currently imprisoned in the United States.
Unlike infamous cartel figures such as Pablo Escobar, Prada Cortés operated largely in the shadows, building an elaborate money-laundering network across Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and the US. His criminal empire came to light in 2006, when Ecuadorian authorities launched “Operation Twin Towers,” the country’s largest anti-narcotics operation at the time. That investigation tied him to smuggling as much as seven tons of cocaine into the United States and laundering tens of millions of dollars.
The forfeiture case remains open nearly two decades later, as authorities continue seeking international cooperation to trace his many assets. Read the full investigation at El Tiempo.
Source: El rastro de crimen y narcotráfico que esconde un lujoso local del Centro Comercial Santa Bárbara (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: bargainmoose, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).