Colombia Soldiers Convicted in Murders

CALI — A cashiered army lieutenant colonel and 14 soldiers were convicted Monday of murdering 10 elite counternarcotics police agents in an ambush that showed how deeply drug corruption threatens Colombia's security forces.

Lt. Col. Byron Carvajal and his soldiers face prison sentences of up to 60 years. Prosecutors want Judge Edmundo Lopez to impose the maximum.

The convictions came despite numerous attempts to subvert the trial, including a prosecutor's offer to help the defense in exchange for more than $400,000, senior police officials and prosecutors familiar with the case told The Associated Press.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing investigations, said the bribe was never paid and the prosecutor who sought it had been removed from the case before he made the offer.

Carvajal was convicted of ordering the May 22, 2006, ambush in the town of Jamundi, where an informant told police they would find at least 220 pounds of cocaine at a psychiatric center. When police pulled up, the soldiers cut them down with 420 bullets and seven grenades. No drugs were found.

Carvajal, who was not at the scene, said his soldiers believed they were surprising leftist rebels. The other defendants refused to testify to avoid incriminating themselves.

Defense attorney Eugenio Vergara said the defendants would appeal after April 21 sentencing.

Carvajal claimed innocence even after the verdict, insisting he "had no motive whatsoever to order the murder of these agents."

He and former Lt. Harrison Castro described themselves as wronged patriots: "I've fought so that all you people here today can be free," Castro told the court.

Prosecutors didn't present evidence about suspected motives. Top army officials initially called it tragic "friendly fire." Senior police officials told the AP they believe the soldiers were protecting a major drug trafficker.

One thing is clear, chief prosecutor Mario Iguaran told the AP: "It was a massacre related to organized criminals."

Mafias have long tried to infiltrate security forces, but Colombia's soldiers rarely kill colleagues in the service of drug lords. While witnesses linked Carvajal to Wilson Figueroa, a drug trafficker captured last year in Cali, those ties were not explained.

Colombia has received some $700 million in U.S. foreign aid annually since 2000, much of it for counternarcotics operations.

The slain agents, some of whom trained in the United States, belonged to the most elite unit of Colombia's judicial investigative police, working closely with DEA agents to seize cocaine and arrest traffickers, said Nicolas Munoz, the agency's deputy director.

Most died of shots to the head, neck and chest. In the midst of the fusillade, some managed distress calls, and Gen. Carlos Sanchez issued a radio order to the troops: "Stop. Stop please. Stop, they're police."

Police got off just 30 shots. Not a single soldier was wounded. The courtroom, filled with relatives of the slain officers, was slent as the verdict was read.

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AP Writers Vivian Sequera and Frank Bajak in Bogota contributed to this report.

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