Anglican bishop and priest arrested for laundering money for Colombia’s top drug gang
Source: Colombia Reports
May 13, 2015
Anglican bishop and priest arrested for laundering money for Colombias top drug gang
posted by Talor Gruenwald
Anglican bishop and priest arrested for laundering money for Colombias top drug gang
posted by Talor Gruenwald
Colombias national police has detained a bishop of the Anglican Church and a pastor suspected of laundering over $400,000 dollars for neo-paramilitary group Los Urabeños.
The two putative religious officials created an organization in which they supposedly raised money from parishioners for religious purposes, but instead used the organization to launder large sums of money.
The bishop, Orlando Arce Ortiz, was the main architect of this organization and was also responsible for advising Los Urabeños on how to make certain members pass as humanitarian aid workers. The pastor, Jorge Armando Mercedes, helped send drug money to his native Dominican Republic and pass it off as offerings from parishioners in Colombia.
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The national director against organized crime for the Prosecutor General, Alvaro Sarmiento, also indicated that, aside from launder money, Otoniel used an NGO as well as Christian churches to transport weapons for the paramilitary group.
Read more: http://colombiareports.com/anglican-bishop-and-priest-arrested-for-laundering-money-for-colombias-top-drug-gang/