The Colombian prosecutor’s office is investigating allegations against President Gustavo Pedro’s son for alleged ties to drug traffickers.

The Colombian prosecutor’s office announced this Friday that it has begun investigating the allegations Deputy Nicholas PetroClaims to be with President Gustavo Pedro’s son and his ex-wife He received money from a drug dealer for his father’s presidential campaign.

“A team of prosecutors, investigators and experts has been set up and investigations have already begun, which went to Barranquilla, the capital of Atlantico’s Caribbean Department. First Steps with Complainant Day Vasquezhas made public information on the matter,” the company said in a statement.

The agency added that the risk conditions of the president’s son’s ex-wife are being evaluated “to create the necessary security conditions.”

Vasquez made the pledge Thursday in an interview with the press week That Drug trafficker Samuel Santander Lopsiera, the “Marlboro Man”Pedro’s son, a deputy in the Atlantic Departmental Assembly, gave “600 million pesos (about $124,700 today) for his father’s campaign.”

“It never got to the campaign legally He kept the money And many more,” the woman added, noting that Nicolas Pedro also received 200 million pesos (about $41,500). Businessman Alfonso “Turco” HilzagaDidn’t even go to the campaign.

And he added: “Everything he has done from 2022, 2021 ends and 2022 starts, which is the election or pre-election period.”

The charges were known Hours after President Pedro issued a statement asking the prosecutor’s office to investigate his brother Juan Fernando and his eldest son NicolasWithout giving further details.

“The Prosecutor’s Office has already opened a criminal notification since January 23, based on the report provided by the Criminal Analysis Unit (SAE) of the CTI (Technical Intelligence Force) regarding the request to investigate the President’s brother, Juan Fernando Pedro,” the Prosecutor’s Office added today.

Similarly, the agency said, “Investigations initiated in the framework of the investigation into alleged payments made by drug traffickers to obtain allocations in total peace will continue.”

In a statement issued yesterday, the President recalled that “High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, is the only official authorized by the government to communicate with illegal organizations with the sole objective of seeking peace.”

According to the President, “Those who want to interfere with that objective (total peace) or want to benefit personally, even if they are members of my family, have no place in the government.”

Lopesierra, “The Marlboro Man,” amassed a fortune trading cigarettes and bootleg liquor on the Atlantic coast in the 1980s and was elected senator in 1994, the same year U.S. authorities said he was part of a criminal network dedicated to money laundering.

He was captured in 2002 and extradited to the United States in 2003, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug trafficking. Released in 2021, before serving the full sentence imposed by a judge in the federal District of Columbia.

Alfonso Hilzaga Eljad, “El Turco Hilzaga”, is another controversial businessman whose investigations by the prosecutor’s office involve links to criminal organizations, including paramilitary groups and administrative corruption mafias.

He was arrested in 2009 after allegedly being involved in the killing of four people in Cartagena de Indias, but was released eight months later due to lack of evidence. In 2010 he was returned to prison after being accused by various paramilitary leaders of collaborating with them, and in 2014 he was arrested again for another murder. Each time he went free.

(with information from EFE)

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