crime

Urrego claims VP wanted his land

LA PRENSA

José Nelson Urrego1002365

Alleged drug trafficker José Nelson Urrego, speaking to an American newspaper, has accused senior government officials of framing him to seize his property.

Urrego, who owned Isla Chapera, was arrested on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering and is currently being held at El Renacer prison.

He told the American paper El Nuevo Herald, which is affiliated with the Miami Herald, that he met with senior government officials several times about his property.

Urrego's lawyers are seeking to question First Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro about two meetings he had with Urrego before his arrest.

"I am telling the 100 percent truth about those meetings," Urrego told El Nuevo Herald, adding that he would be willing to take a lie detector test.

The government passed a law last year allowing the government to seize property tied to drug traffickers and money launderers. Urrego claims that the passage of that law and his arrest were not coincidental, and that Navarro had expressed interest in that property on two occasions.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials, however, told the newspaper that Navarro was not at those meetings.

Urrego worked with the DEA to investigate Colombian FARC members who were trafficking drugs into the U.S. He was arrested in Panama in September of last year.