Colombia detains 37 in gang bust

BOGOTA: Colombian prosecutors said they have arrested 37 members of a gang of drug traffickers and hitmen, including members of the police, the navy and individuals from the prosecutors' own office.

The prosecutor's office in the northwestern department of Choco said Monday that the 37 included "seven police, two members of the prosecutor's office, two from the navy, a councilman and a court secretary."

It said the group was one of a number of "emerging gangs" and was behind a string of murders, extortion and disappearances.

The head of the Colombian police, General Oscar Naranjo, said the group was tied to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), South America's longest-fighting insurgent group.

Naranjo said the group had collaborated with the FARC in trafficking cocaine to Spain and Italy and shipping it through Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru.

In a separate incident, two mayoral candidates in the neighboring department of Antioquia were assassinated while participating in political rallies ahead of local elections in October, authorities said.

Officials have not named suspects in the killings, but the police chief of the department said he suspected the FARC.

FARC is Colombia's oldest and largest guerrilla force, believed to have some 8,000 members. The leftist group has been at war with the government since its founding in 1964.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011