FBI searches for Colombian lawyer and ex-police officer who warned powerful bosses about seizure of drug fortune mentioned by Fico Gutiérrez

In an exclusive shopping center in El Poblado, Medellín, in June 2025, three leaders of a powerful drug trafficking organization that had cocaine laboratories in a sector of Doradal, in Puerto Triunfo (Antioquia), controlled by the ‘Gulf Clan’ met.

One of the attendees at the meeting confessed to an investigator that that day they listened to an audio that someone leaked to them with the names of at least 10 mafiosos who were in the sights of the Prosecutor’s Office.

With that testimony, FBI agents and Colombian intelligence officers discovered that a multimillion-dollar operation to transfer assets – valued at more than 22 billion pesos – had begun, so they would not be seized.

This is the same case referenced last Tuesday by the mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez. According to the mayor, over 13 months, investigators tracked the assets of the bosses of the organization known as ‘los del Dorado’ and managed to seize 44 assets in Antioquia, Boyacá, Santander, and Caquetá.

According to the file, the organization obtained coca base paste in Nariño, which they moved to clandestine laboratories in Puerto Triunfo and then transported, already processed, to the Caribbean coast in cattle trucks and construction materials. From there, it was sent by sea to the United States and Central America.

Although no names or further details of the case were given, the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO exclusively established the name of the leader who became an informant, the list of seized assets, and the identities of the leaders of ‘los del Dorado’.

The seized fortune is linked to Edilson Palacio Orjuela, alias Calvo, and leader of the organization; Olfer Rodríguez Vanegas, alias Olfer; Orlay Sánchez Rojas, alias Negrito; Jesús María Daza Cifuentes, alias Mono Chucho; and Eisar Yulian Monsalve González, alias Yulian.

The latter became a key figure in the case when his lawyer sent a petition to the Prosecutor’s Office in August 2025, stating that, through a source, he had learned of the investigation against the organization and requested that no arrest or raids be issued against alias Yulian.

That request confirmed the leak and accelerated the operation. However, alias Yulian managed to slip away and is now a fugitive.

The surprise is that alias Calvo and Olfer, heads of the organization, submitted to interrogations seeking a plea deal. And in this, they not only ended up talking about the meeting in the El Poblado shopping center, but also admitted that they paid officials to access confidential information.

The bosses said that alias Yulian played them audios of a lawyer who claimed to have contacts in the Prosecutor’s Office and said their arrests were imminent.

“She said that money or an incentive had to be given to an investigator to delay that situation. Alias Yulian had several audios of the lawyer, including one showing the name ‘Olfer’ in a document along with about ten other people. I managed to read that it included ‘Olfer’, ‘Yulian’, ‘Mono’ ‘Chucho’, ‘Calvo’, ‘Calero’ and others I don’t remember. That document had the Prosecutor’s Office logo”, one of the bosses said.

And they claimed that a former police officer offered them access to the investigative file in exchange for 12 million pesos. In fact, alias Calvo said that the ex-police officer gave them a USB with information about the operation against them.

The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO established that, based on tracking the bosses, it was determined that the cocaine laboratories in Puerto Triunfo were in the area of influence of the ‘Gulf Clan’ and specifically with Oliverio Isaza Gómez, alias Terror, who died in a Military Forces operation in February 2025.

The file contains evidence that the bosses paid ‘Terror’ to obtain entry authorizations to the area, guarantee the security of the cocaine laboratories, and facilitate the loading of the cocaine.

“Intercepted communications of network members recorded that payments were made in cash and, in some cases, through the delivery of assets, including high-end vehicles”, an investigator told EL TIEMPO.

In fact, this newspaper had access to the content of some of the interceptions where payment of debts and transfer of assets were discussed.

In February 2020, Edilson Palacio, alias Calvo, spoke with another network member about the seizure of 736 kilos of cocaine hidden in a truck leaving Puerto Triunfo. He claimed that a leader of the organization was pressuring them and that Orlay Sánchez, alias Negrito, would have to cover the debt for the lost merchandise, so he ended up selling a service station in Florencia (Caquetá), on a lot of more than 2,000 square meters, to an associate of Calvo.

That service station appears among the seized assets. It has a commercial value of 4 billion pesos, but they paid 156 million pesos.

What is striking is that, while Calvo appeared in the Sisbén, in the extreme poverty range, he traveled to Spain, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador, and Mexico.

Other assets linked to Calvo, now subject to precautionary measures of asset forfeiture, appear: a house in Puerto Boyacá (Boyacá) and two premises in the Velásquez building, which were transferred to a third party one month after the leader was captured. Also, a 156-square-meter apartment on the 13th floor of the Santorini building, in Envigado (Antioquia), with a commercial value of 1.2 billion pesos.

And alias Olfer, the other leader of the organization, had a house seized in Puerto Boyacá and seven lots in the Sacamujeres village, as well as another one-hectare property in the same area, on the Sortilegio estate.

In the center of that municipality, an apartment was seized from Olfer and his associates, and another in the Laureles neighborhood of Medellín, worth 900 million pesos.

Orlay Sánchez, alias Negrito, and his associates had a 39-hectare lot seized in La Montañita (Caquetá), as well as the ‘El Besubio’ property.

In that area, precautionary measures were also imposed on another property called ‘La Aurora’, of 103 hectares, and ‘Los Laures’, in the municipality of El Puajil. And alias Yulian has lots in El Doradal (Antioquia).

Jesús Daza, alias Mono Chucho, and his associates had a lot seized in the municipality of Sonsón (Antioquia) and a property called ‘La Albania’, in Cimitarra (Santander), of 128 hectares, which had a commercial value of 1.925 billion pesos. Also, the ‘La Venada’ farm, in Cimitarra (Santander), of 102 hectares, which had a commercial value of 2.477 billion pesos.

In Medellín, the S&G SAS Business Group, linked to Negrito, dedicated to real estate activities, was seized.

“Everything seized as a result of the fight against criminal organizations has a new purpose and an opportunity, so that these assets cease to serve crime and begin to serve society and strengthen the state. With transparent management and acting against any hint of corruption, the seized assets will not remain at the service of illegal economic interests, and will be directed in favor of society and the state,” Diana Patricia Bravo, new president of the Special Assets Society (SAE), an entity that also participated in the asset forfeiture operations, told the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO.

(Check here all the articles from the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO)

The FBI already knows who the lawyer and the ex-police officer who leaked information were, and now both are new targets of intelligence agents.

INVESTIGATIVE UNIT

u.investigativa@eltiempo.com

@UinvestigativaET

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