The commander and deputy commander of the San Cristóbal police have been suspended and are under investigation. A source confirmed to El Dia newspaper that the suspension of Colonel Oscar Tejada Báez and Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Odalis Soriano had taken place but did not give the reasons.
The police are investigating the disappearance of an unknown amount of cocaine which was part of a confiscation of drugs and high calibre weapons, which took place after a raid in December 2018 in San Cristobal. According to the police, the officers involved in the raid on an abandoned truck, discovered 50 sacks with more than 500 kilos of drugs but only 13 sacks 346 kilos of cocaine were turned in by the officers.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Interior and Police said that six unnamed police officers were under investigation in connection with this case.
Colonel Frank Félix Durán Mejía, police spokesman, said that the officers under investigation had violated the rules for confiscating the drugs, and possibly had kept it. However, he did not confirm this current round of suspensions is directly linked to this case of the missing drugs.
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El Dia
El Dia
Hoy
19 February 2019