Colombian President Gustavo Petro caught up in a number of narcotics trafficking probes, sources say

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is the topic of a number of ongoing narcotics trafficking investigations being overseen by federal prosecutors in New York, sources advised CBS Information on Friday.

The separate narco-trafficking investigations, based mostly out of New York’s Southern and Jap districts, didn’t got down to goal Petro initially, however his identify has come up through the course of each probes, one of many sources mentioned.

The probes are nonetheless within the very early phases and it’s unclear if Petro might face any prison prices, the supply added. Being a topic of an investigation doesn’t essentially imply a person will face prices, and the time period “topic” refers to the truth that the conduct is throughout the scope of a probe. A goal is the direct focus of an investigation and faces a excessive probability of an indictment on account of substantial quantities of proof. 

The truth that Petro’s identify has come up in a number of drug trafficking investigations was first reported by the New York Occasions. 

The White Home didn’t request any investigation into Petro, a supply mentioned, and his identify got here up organically in the midst of the opposite drug-trafficking investigations.

On X, Petro mentioned in a translated publish that “by no means in my life have I spoken with a drug trafficker,” and had spent a decade “denouncing the hyperlinks between probably the most highly effective drug trafficker and the politicians within the Congress.” He added that in his campaigns, he has “at all times advised my managers” that no donations had been to be accepted from bankers or drug traffickers. Petro predicted that the result of the U.S. probes would in the end assist “dismantle the accusations” which have been leveled at him from the far proper in his personal nation.

Petro and President Trump have had a fraught relationship. Throughout a speech on the United Nations final 12 months, Petro referred to as for prison proceedings in opposition to Mr. Trump and he additionally referred to him because the “New Hitler.”

The Trump administration has accused the Colombian authorities of failing to include a spike in cocaine manufacturing. In October of final 12 months, Mr. Trump referred to as Petro an “unlawful drug chief,” and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent introduced sanctions on Petro and his household, claiming he “has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to cease this exercise.”

However a cellphone name in January appeared to have smoothed over their variations. Each Mr. Trump and Petro characterised their name as optimistic, and the president mentioned the 2 deliberate to satisfy on the White Home in some unspecified time in the future. 

Final October, the Treasury Division introduced sanctions on Petro, members of his household, together with his spouse Verónica, and allies like Inside Minister Armando Benedetti, citing alleged hyperlinks to drug trafficking networks. In Colombia, there have been a number of investigations into Petro’s closest associates.

Essentially the most critical case entails Petro’s son, Nicolás Petro. He was arrested in 2023 on cash laundering and illicit enrichment prices, accused of receiving cash from people linked to drug trafficking. 

In courtroom, Nicolás admitted that unlawful funds had made their means into his father’s marketing campaign but additionally mentioned Gustavo Petro did not learn about it. It is an ongoing case, and Petro’s son has been cooperating with authorities in Colombia.

There have been different formal investigations into the financing of the 2022 presidential  marketing campaign, together with one on doable unlawful donations and spending restrict violations. The main target of these investigations was Ricardo Roa, Petro’s former marketing campaign supervisor and at the moment president of Colombia’s state oil firm Ecopetrol. He hasn’t been convicted however the firm’s employee unions try to get him fired. 

In 2023, Benedetti, now the inside minister, was heard in leaked audio claiming he’d secured large sums of cash for the Petro’s 2022 presidential marketing campaign and threatening to disclose damning details about marketing campaign financing violations. 

The audio information had been recorded when Benedetti was serving as ambassador to Venezuela. No prices had been ever filed.

Across the similar time, Petro’s chief of workers, Laura Sarabia, was briefly pressured out over a separate scandal involving a polygraph check and alleged unlawful cellphone interceptions of considered one of her housekeepers. Sarabia was not too long ago appointed Colombia’s ambassador to the U.Ok., although she barely speaks English. 

The information about Petro comes at a time when the Justice Division has been centered on ramping up efforts to focus on political officers in Cuba, CBS Information beforehand reported.

Earlier this 12 months, the federal government additionally despatched forces into Venezuela to seize its president Nicolás Maduro, who was delivered to New York Metropolis to face prison prices.