Warlords' laptops not handled with care (Uribe's Laptops)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Laptop computers have become treasure troves of evidence for Colombian investigators probing crimes committed by far-right militias and leftist rebels.

So many Colombians were dismayed to learn that prison authorities didn't immediately secure laptops and cell phones belonging to most of the 14 paramilitary warlords who were yanked from cells on May 12 and extradited to the United States to stand trial for drug trafficking.

The mishandled evidence has become a national scandal, and the prisons director only made matters worse when he told Colombia's leading newspaper that he had no way of preventing the warlords from continuing to lead criminal networks from their cells.

That alleged criminal activity was the reason President Alvaro Uribe gave for ordering the warlords' extradition in a midnight operation that surprised even the prosecutors who have been documenting crimes by both sides in Colombia's civil conflict.

On Wednesday, Chief Prosecutor Mario Iguaran said his office would open an investigation if it finds evidence of obstruction of justice in the laptops' handling.

"It isn't just interested in knowing the content of those computers," he told reporters in Panama when asked about the case.

The country's prisons director, Eduardo Morales, said he received no order from superiors to preserve evidence in the warlords' prison cells.

Now, embarrassed authorities are pointing fingers over the laptops and cell phones, which analysts and columnists speculate could have contained data incriminating not just the warlords but also prominent politicians and businessmen.

Prosecutors say they can't be sure that laptops and cell phone SIM cards — which store phone numbers and text messages — weren't tampered with during the more than 48 hours that lapsed before prison officials handed them over to judicial investigators.

Still unaccounted for are the computer and SIM cards of three warlords including Salvatore Mancuso, who has implicated more politicians and military officers in crimes than any other paramilitary boss.

Independent political analyst Claudia Lopez, who helped uncover a scandal linking warlords with politicians that has so far landed 33 members of Congress in prison, said the failure to preserve the chain of custody is striking when compared to the care Colombian authorities took in their handling of other laptop evidence.

"It seems to me outrageous that the computers of the guerrilla Raul Reyes can survive a Colombian military bombardment in a foreign country in the middle of the night while the computers of the paramilitaries can't survive an inspection by INPEC (prison authorities) in a maximum-security prison."

"It's sabotage of important evidence, though you don't know whether it's ineptitude or done deliberately," Lopez added.

Computer files found in a leftist rebel camp in March implicated Venezuela as a guerrilla ally and have prompted criminal investigations — Interpol made a mirror image at the government's request and found no evidence of tampering. And a right-wing paramilitary boss's laptop seized two years ago has helped win convictions against political allies of outlawed far-right militias.

The extradition was a top-secret operation — even the prisons director Morales said he only had a half-hour warning.

Judicial police officers who removed the warlords from prisons in Medellin, Barranquilla and Bogota had no court orders to seize property and weren't allowed to enter the cells, said their boss, Col. Cesar Pinzon.

It was up to prison officials to secure the evidence — officials many Colombians believe are unduly influenced by their wealthier inmates. And in several cases, those officials gave the devices to the warlords' relatives, prisons director Morales told the AP.

"I did not receive any judicial order to place any materials under a chain of custody," Morales said. "Later on, it was authorized that some materials leave with relatives, which is normal."

The warlords were allowed to have laptops and cell phones because they surrendered under a 2003 peace pact that offered them reduced prison terms in exchange for their full cooperation in confessing to crimes. Many were using the machines to compile details of their transgressions.

Curiously, Mancuso's laptop left Medellin's Itagui prison on May 10 for repairs, its exit authorized by corrections officials. It remains unaccounted for.

Also missing are SIM cards from Mancuso's cell phone and those of warlords Ramiro Vanoy and Juan Carlos Sierra, the chief prosecutor's office says.

Mancuso's militias conspired with politicians and military officials to crush leftist rebels and seize control of Colombia's Caribbean coast in the 1990s, killing thousands and stealing millions of acres of land.

Human rights activists complain that their extradition to the United States on drug charges will help them avoid punishment for some of modern Colombia's worst atrocities.

Prosecutors have asked a special tribunal for permission to examine the content of the devices that were eventually recovered from the cells, including 10 laptops, 7 cell phones, 1 Blackberry wireless messaging device, at least 6 USB memory sticks, and 72 CDs belonging to Diego Fernando Murillo, alias Don Berna, that are "labeled with (mass) graves by region and other situations of the organization."

Iguaran's office provided the following update Tuesday on the paramilitaries' legacy: 1,492 bodies of victims have been recovered from common graves and demobilized fighters have confessed to 5,841 crimes.

It said it believes another 4,000 common graves remain to be unearthed.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4VZHen36fX2XinO_245yc4Nw0hQD90UVGU02

the narcotraffickers, nor any arrests, nor even raised eyebrows. They're all home free.

This is a horrendous crime. Too bad there's no one there who can mete out the punishment they've got coming to them.

Breathtaking criminality.