The DEA in Colombia: Losing the drug war, but having a lot of sex

The DEA’s office in Colombia came under fire again after reports that one former official passed classified information to narcos and the outgoing regional director used government funds to visit prostitutes.

The most recent scandal involves the DEA’s outgoing Regional Director Richard Dobrich, who is investigated for using US embassy vehicles and drivers “to procure sex workers,” Associated Press (AP).

Dobrich is set to leave the office and denied the claims. He wrote AP that only a “complete idiot” would use American tax payers’ money to engage in prostitution “given his office’s history,” according to the news agency.

The regional director was reportedly brought to Bogota in the aftermath of a scandal involving DEA’ officers in Cartagena where multiple agents were sanctioned for engaging in sex parties with prostitutes who were paid for by narcos in accommodations paid for by the American government.

Despite the gravity of the apparent ties between the regional DEA office and the local drug traffickers, no officer received a penalty harsher than a 10-day suspension.

Buzzfeed News reported in April that former DEA agent Jose Irizarry, who was also stationed in the port city of Cartagena, was investigated on charges he provided classified information to drug traffickers.

Cartagena is Colombia’s largest port city and processes more than 7,000 shipping containers per day.

According to local authorities, the port is used to export cocaine of the AGC, a paramilitary group that is considered the country’s largest drug trafficking organization and called the “Gulf Clan” by Colombian and American authorities.

Despite US investigations officials telling the news website that “this is big,” and “a major case,” no further developments in the investigation have been reported since.

Alleged ties between the US’ counter-narcotics agency and Colombian narco-paramilitaries are almost as old as Colombia’s cocaine trade itself.

DEA agent Javier Peña allegedly colluded with “Don Berna” when the DEA and the founding commander of paramilitary group AUC were trying to take down the Medellin Cartel in the early 1990s.