Gutiérrez’s communication highlights a public event held on June 21, 2025, in Medellín titled “A Pact for the Urban Peace of Medellín,” which was promoted by the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. During the event, nine individuals identified as leaders of criminal organizations were brought onto a stage and presented as “peace spokespersons.”

The mayor’s letter notes that these individuals have firm convictions for various crimes, including homicide, narcotics trafficking, forced disappearance, and extortion. Among those present were Juan Carlos Mesa Vallejo, alias “Tom,” and Freyner Alfonso Ramírez García, alias “Pesebré,” both of whom are on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List maintained by the US Department of the Treasury‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Mi carta al FBI, DEA, Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos 🇺🇸 y Embajada 🇺🇸 sobre el “Tarimazo” de Petro en Medellín con los peores criminales. Algunos de ellos en el radar de los Estados Unidos por tráfico de drogas. Son 7 páginas. Adjunto 4. pic.twitter.com/K0ToeAFh6r

— Fico Gutiérrez (@FicoGutierrez) September 25, 2025

The letter also states that the release of these individuals from the Itagüí prison was not authorized by a judge. It further alleges that the release was requested by Senator Isabel Cristina Zuleta López of the Pacto Histórico political coalition. Senator Zuleta defended her actions in a statement to W Radio, asserting that it was “inexplicable” not to include the leaders of the criminal structures in a public dialogue about urban peace, as they had been recognized by the president for such talks.

Criminal Structures and Transnational Ties

The letter details the history of criminal organizations in Medellín, from the Medellín Cartel of the 1980s to modern-day groups. It names several prominent organized crime groups (G.D.O.s), including “El Mesa,” “Los Chatas,” “Pachelly,” and “La Terraza,” stating that they continue to operate international narcotics trafficking networks.
Gutiérrez’s letter alleges that these Colombian criminal structures have alliances with international organizations such as the Tren de Aragua, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, the Sinaloa Cartel (OTCMKTS: SRBAL), and the Albanian Mafia, among others.

Information Leak at the Attorney General’s Office

In his letter, Gutiérrez also raised concerns about alleged irregularities within the Colombian Attorney General’s Office. He claims that an investigation into Juan Pablo Taborda Samora, alias “Yordi,” and Daniel Muñoz Olaya, the son of criminal leader José Leonardo Muñoz Martínez, alias “Douglas,” was compromised. According to the letter, information regarding an impending arrest operation against Daniel Muñoz was allegedly leaked, preventing his capture. This alleged leak informed “Douglas” of the ongoing investigation against his son, allowing them to evade authorities.

Click on images to enlarge and view originals:

Letter from Mayor Federico Gutierrez to the US Government

The mayor states that there are 7 total pages, but he published only these four above, which appear to be redacted.

Page 1

Seal of the Mayor’s Office of Medellín

Mayor’s Office of Medellín District of Science, Technology, and Innovation

Medellín, July 02, 2025.

Respected

United States Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), US Embassy Bogotá.

Subject: Submission of relevant information regarding the critical security situation and transnational criminality in Medellín, Colombia.

I, Federico Gutiérrez Zuluaga, in my capacity as Mayor of the Special District of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Medellín, identified with NIT 890.905.211-1, respectfully address you to express profound institutional concern over recent events that, stemming from the national policy of the current Colombian Government, are allegedly favoring, directly and indirectly, criminal structures that have historically affected the security of both our city and that of its international allies, among them, the United States of America.

As is widely known by the international community, Medellín has a complex history linked to organized crime. Indeed, from the 1980s, when the Medellín Cartel dominated the global drug trade, to the present day, the city has been a strategic hub for transnational criminal activities. The criminal structures that mutated from a centralized model to fragmented yet interconnected networks, such as the self-styled “Oficina de Envigado” and the current Organized Crime Groups (hereinafter G.D.O.) and Organized Common Crime Groups (hereinafter G.D.C.O.), maintain a very high criminal capacity with international reach.

Today, the 10 G.D.O.s present in Medellín and the Aburrá Valley—among them “El Mesa,” “Los Chatas,” “Pachelly,” “La Terraza,” “Robledo,” and “La Sierra”—and G.D.C.O.s such as “San Pablo” and “La Oficina del Doce,” continue to operate international narcotics trafficking networks with destinations primarily in North America and Europe. These structures maintain active alliances with cartels such as the “Tren de Aragua”, “CJNG”, “Sinaloa Cartel”, “Albanian Mafia”, “Choneros”, “Lobos”, “Cartel de los Soles”, “Maras Salvatruchas”, “Ndrangheta”, “Camorra”, among others, which demonstrates the internationalization of their criminal activities.

Despite this grave and evident reality, the current National Government of Colombia, led by President Gustavo Petro Urrego, has promoted a policy that, under the discourse of “Total Peace,” has publicly legitimized criminal leaders with serious judicial records, many of whom are apparently still active in drug trafficking, exploitation of minors and adolescents, arms trafficking, human trafficking, and other illegal revenues of transnational interest.

Thus, on this past June 21, 2025, during the public event called “A Pact for the Urban Peace of Medellín,” which was promoted by the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, nine (09) of the top leaders of these structures¹, among them individuals included on the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) List such as Juan Carlos Mesa Vallejo (alias “Tom”) and Freyner Alfonso Ramírez García (alias “Pesebré”), were displayed on stage as “peace spokespersons,” despite having firm convictions for atrocious crimes (such as homicide, narcotics trafficking, use of minors for the commission of crimes, forced disappearance, extortionate kidnapping, extortion, and criminal conspiracy, among other crimes of extreme gravity) and even though, apparently, they continue to control their criminal structures from the penitentiary center where they are imprisoned (particularly, in the Itagüí prison – Antioquia). This event was also attended by the Minister of Justice and Law (Eduardo Montealegre Lynett), the Minister of the Interior (Armando Alberto Benedetti Villaneda), the Minister of National Education (José Daniel Rojas Medellín), the Minister of Labor (Antonio Sanguino Páez), the Minister of Mines and Energy (Edwin Palma Egea), the Minister of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia (Yannai Kadamani Fonrodona), Senators of the Republic Isabel Cristina Zuleta López and León Fredy Muñoz Lopera, Representatives to the Chamber for Antioquia Alex Xavier Flórez Hernández and Pedro Baracutao García Ospina, the Representative to the Chamber for Valle del Cauca Alfredo Mondragón Garzón, and the former mayor of Medellín, now charged by the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation for alleged acts of corruption, Daniel Quintero Calle, among others.

Now, this public act signified a grave institutional violation. This, since it was an act of re-victimization for the people affected by these criminal groups, who have seen their victimizers legitimized in a political setting, without authorization from a Judge of the Republic to leave their place of imprisonment, even though they all currently have a final conviction (and it is being served). Likewise, the departure from the prison was supported by a request from the Historic Pact senator, Isabel Zuleta Cristina Zuleta López.

The foregoing raises serious questions about the separation of powers, due process, and the principle of equality before the law, given that, under the current legal framework, there is no legal basis for reaching an agreement with criminal structures, which does not amount to a submission to justice.

Furthermore, the foregoing occurred in a complex context, not only local but also national. This is because there have apparently been undue leaks of sensitive information and possible undue pressure in high-impact processes, namely:

In events surrounding recent procedural actions carried out by the Attorney General’s Office in the country against members of the G.D.O. “La Terraza,” among them Mr. Juan Pablo Taborda Samora, known in criminal jargon as “Yordi” (the top leader and boss of hitmen for said organization), and against Daniel Muñoz Olaya, son of José Leonardo Muñoz Martínez (alias “Douglas”), arrest warrants were issued against them for different crimes which they apparently took part in to integrate said criminal organization, who, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, are involved in money laundering and illicit enrichment. However, despite details of this operation having been filtered by irregular third parties, which could have jeopardized the success of all the captures (apparently alerting the targets before the proceedings began), and compromising the security of the Judicial Police investigators and the designated prosecutor’s office itself.

Indeed, as was evidenced in an extraordinary security meeting held in the District of Medellín this past June 17, 2025 (which included the participation of the Unit Against Organized Crime of the Attorney General’s Office, the National Police, the National Army of Colombia, the Colombian Air Force, and representatives of state intelligence agencies) and in a meeting on June 19, 2025 aimed at conducting a presentation of the balance of operational results by the National Police, it was established that there was a leak of information hours before the operation, since alias “Douglas” had been informed of a respective investigative process against his son and that his capture would be imminent.

As a result of this situation, not only would the capture of Daniel Muñoz Olaya have been prevented (by evading the action of the public force at the time of the execution of the search with (Additional text appears to be missing beyond this point. The mayor states that there are 7 total pages, but he is making public these four, redacted. -Ed.)

FOOTNOTES:

1: In effect, these are José Leonardo Muñoz Martínez (alias Douglas), Juan Carlos Mesa Vallejo (alias Tom), Jorge de Jesús Vallejo Alarcón (alias Vallejo), Juan Camilo Rendón Castro (alias el Saya), Albert Henao Acevedo (alias Albert), Juan Fernando Álvarez (alias Juan XXIII), Walter Román Jiménez (alias el Tigre), Freyner Ramírez García (alias Pesebré), and Dayron Alberto Muñoz Torres (alias El Indio).
Footnote 2 appears to be redacted.

3: Copy of the official letter of transfer for the competence of relevant information filed on June 25, 2025, before the Attorney General’s Office by the Secretary of Security of the District of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Medellín.

4: Copy of the official letter of transfer of relevant information for the pertinent purposes and request for urgent and necessary protection measures filed on June 25, 2025, before the Attorney General’s Office.

5: Copy of a news article published on June 26, 2025, by Revista Semana.

6: World Drug Report 2025 by UNODC: Global instability aggravates the social, economic, and security impact of the global drug phenomenon, published on June 26, 2025, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

7: Copy of the publication made on July 1, 2025, on the social network “X” by Caracol Radio.

Sincerely,

[Signature]

Federico Andrés Gutiérrez Zuluaga, Mayor of Medellín.

In a joint effort by Colombia’s Attorney General, the DIJIN unit of the National Police and the United States Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) ICE Agency, an arms trafficking ring called Diamante has been toppled along with the capture of 25 of its alleged members. This according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s office.

 25 alleged members of the Diamante gang were captured in simultaneous raids across 4 cities.

Of the 22 arrests made by court order, 18 took place in Cali, Colombia and one in the nearby town of Buga; two in Bogotá and one in Medellín. The remaining three arrests were made in flagrante delicto in the capital of Valle del Cauca.

Under the coordination of a specialized prosecutor, last Tuesday uniformed officers carried out 28 simultaneous raids and searches in the cities, seizing short and long-range firearms (AK-40 rifles, Sig Sauer rifles with telescopic sights, grenade launchers, revolvers, pistols, grenades, ammunition of different calibers, accessories, essential parts for rifles and machine guns, and cell phones.

 An arsenal with short and long-range weapons & $97 million pesos were seized from the defendants.

According to the prosecutors, the investigation took place with technical and testimonial evidence, interception of communications, surveillance and monitoring. This criminal structure, prosecutors allege, had been committing crimes since April 2019, bringing weapons in from the United States and later distributing them to illegal armed groups or intermediaries in different cities throughout Colombia.

In arraignments, a Colombian judge legalized the arrests of the 25 suspects and the evidence. In the next few hours, the Prosecutor’s Office will file formal charges and request an assurance that the detainees are held without bond as allegedly responsible for the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and manufacture, trafficking and carrying firearms for the exclusive use of the Military Forces or explosives.

Under the coordination of a specialized prosecutor, last Tuesday uniformed officers carried out 28 simultaneous raids and searches in the cities, seizing short and long-range firearms (AK-40 rifles, Sig Sauer rifles with telescopic sights, grenade launchers, revolvers, pistols, grenades, ammunition of different calibers, accessories, essential parts for rifles and machine guns, and cell phones.

On the challenges of managing this approach, Lagae commented: “Communication professionals work on perception. Many times, the image that potential tourists, businessmen or investors have in their minds about a country does not coincide with reality. Our job is to find what to say, to whom, how and when to influence the decision to visit or invest in a country.”

Didier Lagae, head of MARCO agency, author of Marca Pais, un país como marca

Marca País, a Country as a Brand, presents a proven methodology for the construction of a country’s reputation. Its author has implemented 360-degree communication campaigns through its MARCO agency in numerous markets, working on both the tourism and doing business axes. Some success stories include Morocco, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Madeira, and several regions of Spain. In Morocco, in addition to reaching 75% of decision makers, a 54% increase in direct global investment was achieved. Likewise, the campaign implemented in Mexico for its promotion as a tourist destination, before the election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), achieved an increase of 80% in number of visits for the period 2012-2017; At the same time, it evolved from # 15 to # 8 in the ranking of the most visited countries in the world.
The investment required for this type of campaign varies according to the strategy and objectives of each country, says Lagae. “Watering where more fruits will be collected” is a metaphor that the author uses to reflect the importance of optimizing resources in this type of project. In this sense, Lagae says: “It is not about investing more, but about investing better. Many times, we see how bureaucracies have funds to promote investment and tourism, but do not invest them efficiently. You have to avoid the Brownian movement and irrigate specifically where it makes sense, where there will be a greater return on investment. ”
The Invest in Morocco project focused on promoting Morocco’s industrial image, resulting in an increase in direct foreign investment of 50% for more than three consecutive years, with surprising peaks such as Spanish investment, which increased by 76%.

Didier Lagae, born in Belgium but Spanish by adoption, chose Colombia rather than in Europe for his initial book launch, understanding that the Andean country is going through a key moment in its history. In that sense, he emphasized: “Colombia left behind a nefarious period marked by narco-terrorism and radically changed. It is time for this change to be made known to the world. The perception of the country brand continues, unfortunately, to be centered on Colombia’s past and not on its future. The new government has the opportunity to invest in communication, adequately defining its audiences and reflecting the appropriate storytelling for each of them, and thus: increase exports and investments, attract talent and promote tourism. ”

Marca Pais, A Country As A Brand is a reference book on constructing a reputation for an entire country, with the goals of promoting tourism, increasing exports, and multiplying foreign direct investment.

The Spanish-language book ‘Marca país, un país como marca’ will be available in bookstores in Colombia in the month of October and online now.

SOAT is an insurance coverage with a high social impact implemented in countries in the region (Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia), with premiums totaling $2 billion USD as of 2015. Colombia is one of the countries with the highest ubiquity of this insurance, where premiums reached $1.93 billion COP as of December 2015

SOAT has played an important role to insurance penetration and promoting insurance culture in Colombia. This business line maintains an important participation in the industry with 8.8% of the total written premiums as of December 2015 (8.2 % as of December 2010), and has been one of the most important growth engines of the industry. During the last three years (2015-2012), this segment recorded a consistent and sustained growth average of 13% on written premiums and 17% on insurance policies (average 2013-2015). SOAT has also a significant influence on the market’s profitability ratios; given it is a fully retained business that represents a substantial portion of retained premiums (10.2% December 2015) and paid claims (11% December 2015)

According to Fitch, the growing incidence of fraud is mainly due to a liquidity problem in the Colombian health system…

The technical profitability of this segment, records a negative trend since 2012, when SOAT’s technical results started to be increasingly deficient. Closing 2015, SOAT’s technical losses reached $250 billion COP, 68% higher than 2014, which represented almost 4 percentage points of the industry’s combined ratio that stood on 113% at December 2015. This negative performance was partly affected by the IBNR reserves adjustment under the new regulation, which according to rating agency estimations, impacted the technical result in about $100 billion COP at 2015. Notwithstanding, SOAT’s viability is also being affected by several structural factors

Technical fraud is one of the main factors that have affected SOAT’s loss ratio. This situation is generating an overcharge of medical expenses for events that, even in some cases, are not caused or related to traffic accidents. According insurer’s association estimates, detected fraud cases have generated claim’s overcharges of between $80 billion and $100 billion COP in 2015

According to Fitch, the growing incidence of fraud is mainly due to a liquidity problem in the Colombian health system, along with two major changes in the segment’s claims scope and operation during the last three years: increase of the coverage of the SOAT from 500 times to 800 times the minimum monthly wage and elimination of “in situ” accident declaration. These changes have opened the possibility and generated perverse incentives to declare a common accident as a traffic accident under the SOAT coverage

Likewise, the loss ratio has been also affected by a major change in the country’s vehicle fleet composition during the last five years, which now has  a growing proportion of motorcycles to cars. According to agency estimations, motorcycles represented 56% of the fleet as of December 2015 and the risk profile of this type of vehicle is greater due to the higher accident frequency and severity. The insurer’s association estimates that 80% of the SOAT’s total paid claims correspond to motorcycles, which clearly highlight their higher risk and importance on the total loss ratio. Given the slower growth rate in car sales, Fitch expects a further increase of motorcycles’ share in the overall vehicle fleet, which is expected to have a negative impact on the segment’s profitability. In addition, the shock of external factors such as medical inflation and the sharp local currency devaluation had increased the cost of claims, particularly in medicines and osteosynthesis, which has not been compensated with by a proportional price adjustment that is indexed to minimum wage variation

Moreover, SOAT’s profitability has also been affected by high levels of acquisition costs. Given that pricing is regulated, product commercialization plays an important role for market agents. However, Fitch anticipates an improvement of this factor in the long term as a result of the policy virtualization, which will increase the sale process efficiency, reduce evasion and could improve market’s grasp to distribution costs

The industry has taken measures to recover the technical profitability of this segment by focusing on two strategies. On one hand, a large number of companies that subscribe SOAT have implemented measures to improve distribution channel’s management and profitability, and have identified the need to modernize their technology platforms for a more efficient sales workflow and to implement information technology strategies. On the other hand, the insurer’s association joint work with the Colombian Financial Supervisory Authority and the Health Ministry, is taking place in order to find ways to improve claims control, avoid technical fraud and recover the technical profitability

Fitch does not expect a quick recovery of SOAT’s technical profitability, given that most of the measures required to improve some of the structural factors will be implemented within the next 18 months. Moreover, Fitch believes that segment’s sustainability and profitability challenges will persist. Adequate control and proper claims monitoring, while maintaining efficient operations, is essential in order to recover the technical profitability of a high relevance segment for the industry