Colombia cops sold informants to drug lords-report

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Two Colombian police officers sold the identity of informants working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to drug traffickers, who hunted them down and killed them, according to a police intelligence report cited in a newspaper on Saturday.

The two officers, a captain and a lieutenant, received roughly $140,000 for the names of three informants in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla late last year, El Tiempo reported.

The informants' mutilated bodies were found shortly afterward, helping to detonate a scandal that has led to the removal of about 20 police officers and the resignation of the former police chief from the Barranquilla area.

The police intelligence report also said the two officers negotiated the return of three tonnes of cocaine that had been confiscated after a tip-off by the informants to the DEA.

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