In mid-July 2025, several high-ranking officials in Gustavo Petro’s government received an audio in which an official complained about receiving undue pressure to favor, through decisions, a dangerous drug trafficker.
EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit investigated and established that the case escalated quickly because the voice heard was that of Amelia Perez, the president of the Special Assets Society (SAE), who was even nominated by Petro for Attorney General.
The ‘Fortuna’ properties
And the pressures came, according to her, from the Secretary of Transparency of the Presidency, Andrés Idárraga.
“Good afternoon, René. Honestly, I am already annoyed with the calls and insistence from Dr. Idárraga. First, he makes me go all the way to the office to tell me it is a matter of national security for information about a man alias Fortuna. He even told me to speak with a major who was holding the meeting between the two of us, which I honestly do not accept like that,” Pérez is heard saying in the audio revealed by EL TIEMPO.
With a clearly annoyed voice, the official continued: “What does he mean? No, that it concerns the President’s security issues and he gave me an address in Cali, which is supposed to be under the name of Andrés Mauricio Vélez Hernández (alias Fortuna). That address in Cali is Carrera 84 #15-75 Casa el Ingenio. I had that checked to see what it was about; here it appears as if it were unoccupied. But on site, there is a woman inside the property with children and she talks about a woman referred to as the boss, who did not want to give the names of the people who came.”
According to Pérez, Idárraga asked to change the custodian of that drug asset and then spoke of another 24, linked to the same capo.
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‘The two Fs’
“He asked me to appoint Mrs. Isabel Cristina Aguirre Piñeres as custodian, even gave me her ID number and all her details. That it was something urgently needed for a matter of the President’s security and something about weapons and I don’t know what else. He even spoke about 24 properties of this alias Fortuna. Honestly, I say, if he has his contact in the Prosecutor’s Office, as his wife is, why does he have to go to the SAE for that? It simply annoyed me, so I left and have been stalling to do absolutely nothing. I checked and that lady already has records regarding civil proceedings and honestly, she has me annoyed. If the gentleman continues in that tone, I will report him because I am tired of that insistence,” Pérez emphasized.
And she concluded by saying she was not going to appoint custodians that others asked her to: “I decide whom I appoint and why.”
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EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit investigated and established that emissaries of the capo ‘Fortuna’ and Juan José Valencia Zuluaga, had already gone to knock on the doors of two other state agencies with similar purposes: to offer information about alleged attacks in exchange for benefits, even for their prosecuted relatives.
Initially, through Manuel Castañeda, the so-called ‘narco-driver’, they reached Augusto Rodríguez, head of the National Protection Unit (UNP), with the version that they were going to hand over weapons supposedly to be used in one of the attacks.
“When they got nothing in return, they went to the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), where there are reserved funds for informants,” explained an intelligence officer.
He added that a lawyer presented himself as an intermediary for ‘the Fs’, as they called the capos. From the approach with the DNI, during Jorge Lemus’s time, an audio emerged. And finally, they reached Idárraga’s offices.
Initially, with the information provided by Castañeda, at the UNP, the Dijín Anti-terrorism Special Operations Group carried out an operation on July 9, 2025, at a farm in Puerto Boyacá known as Los Alpes.
EL TIEMPO had access to photos, videos, and the report drawn up during the operation in which rifles and ammunition were found in buried barrels containing grease to preserve the weapons.
According to the document, 6 rifles caliber 5.56, grips, sniper scopes, almost 2,000 cartridges caliber 7.62, and 1,168 cartridges caliber 5.56 were found.
‘National security’
In Idárraga’s case, he was told about an attack against Petro, which was to be carried out on July 20 during the military parade in Santa Marta.
In exchange for the information, they wanted adjustments in the drug assets and access to the Prosecutor’s Office. EL TIEMPO contacted Idárraga who began by stating that then-president Gustavo Petro was fully aware of what was happening.
“The President directed me to the then director of Dapre Angie Rodríguez and to General Guatibonza, head of presidential protection. I spoke with both, from the President onward, and told them that in exchange for that information they were asking for the change of a custodian in one of the source’s assets,” said Idárraga.
He added: “Angie Rodríguez is the one who summoned Mrs. Amelia Pérez. I met with her and told her the situation and she said she was going to speak with the Attorney General, then I told the same to Dr. Luz Adriana Camargo, I informed her and she put me in contact with the delegate prosecutor for territorial security, Dr. Deisy Jaramillo, to whom I gave the same information.”
Idárraga sent EL TIEMPO chats with Pérez, in which he calls the audio sent to the Palace disrespectful and explains the entire process that the information they delivered went through. He also says it would be unethical to use his relationship as a couple to carry out procedures in the Prosecutor’s Office.
“Unlike her friends and other people around her, my conduct is transparent and I have nothing to hide,” Idárraga wrote to Pérez on August 12, 2025.
‘False positives’
According to Idárraga, with the information provided by the mafia, an operation was carried out in Santa Marta in the early hours of July 20 in which mortar grenades, rifles, and magazines were found: “Later, the sources were asking why they had not been fulfilled and sent a resume and Mrs. Amelia Pérez evaluated it and considered that it did not meet requirements because apparently it had some records.”
Idárraga was emphatic that all communications with Amelia Pérez were to insist that, as long as it was a legal matter and met some requirements, the possible custodian was made available to the SAE: “Everything was done with the knowledge of the most powerful people in the country: the President, the Attorney General, and the Army commander. There is nothing to hide. These are ill-will actions from some people in the former president’s close circle.”
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EL TIEMPO also asked him about the version according to which he helped coordinate the departure of Luis Enrique Rojas, president of Hocol and now a star witness against Ricardo Roa in the influence peddling case.
Also, that he would be pressuring Ecopetrol to rent coworking spaces in Cartagena and Bogotá. But Idárraga assured he has nothing to do with Rojas’s departure nor with Ecopetrol.
The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the case of the ‘Fs’ as a possible false positive.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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