The mayor of La Guajira municipality, Indira Fernández, who has been arrested by intelligence agencies for corruption and drug trafficking allegations. Photo: El Nacional.
Indira Fernández, the mayor of the Bolivarian Indigenous Municipality of La Guajira (Sinamaica) in Zulia state, Venezuela, has been arrested by agents of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) for allegations of corruption and association with drug trafficking.
SEBIN agents also arrested Commissioner General Alexander Beltrán, director of the Bolivarian National Police in that municipality; Alí Fernández, general director of the mayor’s office, and Caterina González Mapari, director of the toll post on the Limón river bridge.
The arrests are part of an investigation which covers several aspects, including alleged acts of corruption in the management of the income from the tolls and other revenue sources, as well as alleged links between Mayor Indira Fernández and the network of mayors involved in drug trafficking from Colombia to the United States. According to the Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello, shipments entered through the Catatumbo region and traveled through Lake Maracaibo to reach the Caribbean Sea.
The alleged leader of this ring is Jercio Alberto Parra Machado, who recruited several mayors of the municipalities located on the shores of Lake Maracaibo to facilitate the logistics for the passage of drug shipments, according to ongoing investigations. In this regard, intelligence agencies have identified six mayors as allegedly associated with this network.
The mayors who were detained earlier as part of these investigations are Rafael Arturo Ramírez Colina (Maracaibo municipality), Nervis de Jesús Sarcos Urdaneta (San Carlos del Zulia municipality), Jorge Luis Navas Paz (Los Puertos de Altagracia municipality), Alberto de Jesús Sobalvarro Durán (Isla de Toas municipality), Fernando Loaiza (Encontrados municipality), and Danilo Esteban Añez Polanco (La Concepción municipality).
In March, security agencies seized 9,866.3 kilograms of cocaine that was being trafficked through Lake Maracaibo.
(Últimas Noticias) by Eligio Rojas
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
