Colombia’s Top Lawman, Facing Corruption Charges, Surrenders
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BOGOTA, Colombia — This nation’s top judicial official surrendered to police Friday, a day after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest on drug corruption charges.
A police spokesman said Atty. Gen. Orlando Vasquez surrendered to a Metropolitan Police commander at a church on the outskirts of the capital.
He was then whisked to a facility belonging to the state security police, avoiding hordes of reporters and photographers.
The whereabouts of Vasquez had been unknown since Thursday afternoon, when the unprecedented order for his arrest was made public by the chief prosecutor’s office.
The warrant stems from charges that he accepted thousands of dollars from Colombia’s leading drug traffickers, the Cali cartel, before and after he was sworn in as attorney general in 1994.
Vasquez, 53, is the latest high-ranking official to be held in an investigation of links between the Cali cartel and Colombia’s political establishment.
The probe has touched President Ernesto Samper, who is being investigated for allegations he won office in 1994 with million-dollar donations from the cartel.
Vasquez, a former interior minister and senator for the ruling Liberal Party, has denied any wrongdoing.
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