President Gustavo Petro reacted, through his Twitter account, to a news item that revealed WEEK on the night of this Sunday, December 18.
It is an explosive confession of the ‘narco driver’ who fell with cocaine in a van of the National Protection Unit (UNP). It is a statement that Manuel Antonio Castañeda made to the director of the UNP, Augusto Rodríguez, where he recounts that he was the person who picked up and transported alias Matamba in his car the day he escaped from La Picota prison, on the 18th of March and, most seriously, according to the story, that on the way to escape he was escorted by men from the Police Gaula.
For this reason, President Petro issued a warning regarding this episode, which once more puts the magnifying glass on what has been happening in that entity.
“One of the worst acts of corruption is regarding to be discovered. Drug shipments were not only transported in official vehicles, but also prisoners who later turned up dead.” said the president of the Colombians.
For now, the president has not made any further statements on the subject, but it demonstrates the seriousness of the findings of possible corruption in the National Protection Unit that have been reported for months.
Castañeda’s story known in its entirety by WEEK Today it is in the hands of the director of the National Police, General Henry Zanabria, and the prosecutor, Francisco Barbosa.
Castañeda pointed out that Edgar asked him to pick up a black man that day on Avenida Boyacá in front of the Doña Juana landfill, but that he did not know that it was the drug trafficker, much less that he had escaped from La Picota.
From that point in the south of Bogotá, Castañeda began a long journey that took him to the corregimiento of Doradal.in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia, very close to the mythical Nápoles farm that belonged to the boss of the Medellín Cartel, Pablo Escobar Gaviria.
But the most serious part of his statement is that during the journey he was escorted by men from the Police Gaula, which made him think, he says, that he was a protected character.
Castañeda left alias Matamba at that point and quickly returned to Bogotá. In his statement, Manuel Antonio Castañeda maintained that he found out that the transported person was Matamba the next day, when the news of his escape spread like wildfire throughout the country.
Days later, Castañeda assures, he contacted officials from the United States embassy, DEA agents and filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office. To check it, he says, keep copies of emails and trades.
He also claims that he met with anti-narcotics police officers who performed polygraph tests on him that corroborated his testimony. The same happened with the DEA agents.
The former subintendent of the Police maintains that he reached an agreement with the DEA and the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office in exchange for protection for him and his family. His mission was to infiltrate the organization and provide information regarding the criminal network that was behind the escape of the drug trafficker and help locate him to capture him.
The agreement, said Castañeda, was not fulfilled because in the end, alias Matamba was killed. during a police operation in Bolívar, Santander, at the end of last May.
In his account, Castañeda recounted that the escape of the extinct drug trafficker from the Clan del Golfo was organized by a man known under the alias of El Pájaro, who allegedly had connections with senior active police officers who have even been decorated.
Castañeda assured that he gave the Prosecutor’s Office names, telephone numbers, audios and other evidence of high-ranking police officers who are allegedly involved in serious corruption irregularities and ties to criminal gangs.
Castañeda’s statement was sent by Augusto Rodríguez to the Attorney General’s Office and was also shared with the police director, General Henry Zanabria, and the Defense Minister, Iván Velásquez.
