One of the few pieces of information that President Gustavo Petro gave in his speech at the installation of Congress, on July 20, What was not questioned by experts or the opposition, is that in Medellín (and also in Bogotá) a transnational crime group that traffics cocaine and is made up of major league bosses of at least 38 nationalities is entrenched.
A week before, the mayor of Medellín himself, Federico Gutiérrez, had already exposed the phenomenon that is hitting the Paisa capital: “They take cocaine from Medellín, directly, to Alta Guajira and from there they take it to Central America, Panama and the United States.”
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Alliance with agencies
The elected president, Abelardo De La Espriella, delivering the balance of the territorial connection. Photo:Jaiver Nieto Álvarez.
And his diagnosis was completed by the president-elect, Abelardo De La Espriella, who assured that Medellín is “the head of the snake of drug trafficking and organized crime.”
In fact, the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, admitted for the first time that the so-called ‘drug trafficking board’ is no longer in Dubai, as he insisted.
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Therefore, it is not free De La Espriella has announced that Medellín will be the headquarters of the agency of the so-called Shield of the Americas, the ‘club’ of countries with governments that have turned to the right and that have already begun to coordinate transnational operations with the Trump administration.
“The immediate effect will be to intensify collaboration with intelligence agencies that were on the verge of being expelled. Even coordinating from Colombia, due to its geostrategic location, joint operations with other countries”said an informed source.
Gustavo Petro in Congress Photo:Néstor Gómez – El Tiempo
And there are enough reasons for Medellín to be the epicenter. EL TIEMPO learned of excerpts from an intelligence report in which, as the city’s Secretary of Security said, Manuel Villa, have found traces of 29 drug lords of the same number of nationalities who are searching for everything from new drug trafficking routes, to protection by local structures and even the first shipments of fentanyl.
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One of the freshest data on the presence of these bosses is the case of Artur Tushi, an Albanian who carried an Ecuadorian passport and operated criminal networks from Lleras Park, a party venue where the Paisa elite has stopped going.
Tushi was shot by a hitman in October 2025 at the entrance to the Santa Fe shopping center, located in El Poblado. The drug trafficker, born in Lexhë, Albania, He was shot 11 times and at that time United States federal agencies—including the FBI and the DEA—were already tracking him for his links to human trafficking and drug trafficking networks.
Artur Tushi, 44 years old. Photo:THE TIME.
The secretary Security Villa has admitted in several scenarios that they are facing a problem that has escalated to another level, with a dangerous cocktail of local structures and international mafias that has led them to seek support from federal agencies to combat it.
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“It’s not just about local structures. There are international mafias articulated in Lleras Park”Villa said at the time, and it was later learned that several members of that network were captured in Cali and Pereira when they were preparing to send several Paisa women to Albania and other Balkan countries such as Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo and Malta.
Services Portfolio
Security in El Poblado, Medellín. Photo:Jaiver Nieto. THE TIME
According to the same report, in Medellín there are a handful of links of local mafias that offer international bosses portfolios of illegal services that are paid with weapons, silver and cryptocurrencies.
“Several of these links are members of structures that were sitting at dialogue tables with the Petro government”says an intelligence officer.
In addition to cocaine, they are offered a package with false identities and protection in Colombia with escorts and armored cars.
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In February of this year EL TIEMPO revealed that the Panamanian boss Jean Carlo Valderrama, alias Balín, was hiding in a mansion in El Poblado and moved around in high-end pickup trucks and sports vehicles escorted by a robust security detail, made up of 8 armed men. Among them, there were two natives of Urabá, Antioquia.
This same drug service is also being offered to dissident leaders such as alias Chalá, the same one who ordered the murder of the young journalist Mateo Pérez.
Dutch and quinoa
Jean Carlo Valderrama had a red Interpol notice and had remained hidden in Medellín since 2023 Photo:Provided by authorities
Another recent case, on June 18, is that of Soner Nusret Aka, born in the Netherlands, but known by the alias ‘El Francés’.
They point him out as leading a network that sends cocaine from Colombia and Mexico to Europe, hidden in shipments of quinoa.
According to the research, alias the Frenchman has links with mafias in Asia, specifically in Thailand; and in Europe, in France.
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Federal agencies are after his contact in Bangkok. And it was established that the ‘Frenchman’ came to Colombia to hide from international authorities for the seizure of a shipment of almost two tons of cocaine that landed in the Dominican Republic.
In Medellín he posed as a prosperous natural foods businessman and, following a pattern of other captures, he fell into Lleras Park.
The Italian and ‘los Chivos’
Dutchman captured in Medellín Photo:Aburrá Valley Metropolitan Police
Another emblematic capture was that of Roberto Nastasi, last January.
He is an Italian resident in Guayaquil, Ecuador, who constantly traveled to Medellín for his role as the coordinator of an important drug trafficking operation.
He had an arrest warrant in Italy and is accused of being a member of the ‘Ndrangheta, one of the most dangerous mafias in the world. In Ecuador he posed as a businessman in the automotive sector, but in Colombia he was directly linked as a partner of the ‘Gulf clan’, another of the hosts of foreign drug traffickers.
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Mayor Gutierrez It exposed one of the alliances between foreign bosses with local structures: the family clan known as ‘los Chivos’.
This mafia structure is accused of controlling drug trafficking routes from the capital of Antioquia to Alta Guajira.
Capture of Roberto Nastasi. Photo:Supplied.
And in the intelligence report several of its members were identified.
“Historically, its top boss is Hugo Armando Suaza Ramírez, ‘Hugo Chivo’, father of that entire family unit and the historical reference of that organization, is the father of ‘Chatán’ and alias Menor. We are talking about Sebastián Suárez Ochoa, alias Chatán, who was captured in our administration, who was one of the driving forces behind the crime and responsible for several homicides. “Juan Camilo Suaza Ochoa, alias Pichi or ‘Jean Paul’, is a brother and is the ringleader within that criminal structure.”said Mayor Gutiérrez.
The gym boss
Arif Jhuman was captured in the El Tesoro shopping center. Photo:Supplied.
The Canadian also appears in the intelligence records Arif Jhuman, who, as EL TIEMPO revealed, was captured two weeks ago in a gym at the El Tesoro shopping center in Medellín.
The Florida District Court opened an investigation into Jhuman in December 2025 for conspiracy to traffic firearms.
According to authorities reports, he is associated with a mega drug trafficking operation not only with cocaine, but also fentanyl.
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And there are other no less minor pieces that have come to seal deals in Colombia and that have ended up detained in Medellín.
One of the cases is that of Ismael Abdiel González Pomares, from Panama, linked to drug trafficking through national ports and detained by the Police in the Laureles neighborhood. In addition, José Rodríguez Cova, from the Netherlands, captured in the North Terminal of the Paisa capital and linked to international mafias. Another who stands out is Óscar David Román, alias Kokín, from Costa Rica, linked to the drug trafficking organization ‘the Saggy’.
Connection with Bogotá
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito and his brother Ronald Javier Macías Villamar, alias Javi. Photo:Extra Newspaper of Ecuador
And although The issue has focused on the captures in Medellín, there are several bosses who have been arrested in Bogotá with connections with structures that operate in the capital of Paisa or with links with bosses who visit that city.
Among these are that of the Ecuadorian alias Javi, brother of the powerful criminal leader alias Fito. ‘Javi’ resided in a short-rent apartment located near the United States Embassy in the capital.
Also mentioned is Roberto Rafael Daantje, from Curacao, captured on June 20. The subject belonged to a transnational organization that illicitly connected South America with Europe and Asia, covering operations in Colombia, Suriname, Spain and Russia.
In fact, according to investigators, he had contacts with drug lords in Antioquia to negotiate cocaine.
All have been linked to organizations such as the ‘Gulf clan’ and ‘la Terraza’ in Medellín.
It is not ruled out that with the agency of the Shield of the Americas in that city elite groups are created to begin the hunt for the transnational mafia.
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