The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the filing of the file containing the request for detention for the purposes of extradition of Leyson José Plazas Tamayo, who was wanted in Colombia for allegedly being a member of the drug trafficking structure in that country.
Such a decision is contained in ruling 637 written by Judge Carmen Marisela Castro and supported by her colleagues, Elsa Gómez and Maikel Moreno.
The arrest of Plazas Tamayo occurred last February, specifically in the Yuma sector, Parque Residencial El Poblado urbanization, sector A, building 17, floor 5, apartment 17-51, San Diego (Carabobo), according to a report from the Investigations Division of Interpol-Carabobo.
From there, the extradition process proposed by Colombia began by placing him on the list of those traceable by Interpol because in that country he is wanted for fraud against the public administration and money laundering, crimes committed in the departments of Antioquia, Santander, North of Santander, Cundinamarca and César.
“Through an investigation, it was established that Plazas Tamayo is an alleged member of a criminal group called Atlantis (…) dedicated to money laundering, the product of activities related to drug trafficking,” says the sentence of the Criminal Court that reproduces reports from Interpol.
On February 29, the Criminal Chamber informed Colombia that it had 90 days to present the formal extradition request regarding Plazas Tamayo. The magistrates confirmed that this period “has more than expired… without the Republic of Colombia presenting the formal request for the extradition of the requested citizen, accompanied by the necessary judicial documentation to support it.”
In that sense, the magistrates recalled that failure to present the formal extradition request, as well as the pertinent judicial documentation, within the established legal period, leads to the immediate freedom of the arrested person. Likewise, the Chamber verified that, regarding Plazas Tamayo, born in Venezuela and naturalized Colombian, there is no criminal investigation underway in the country.
For this reason, the Criminal Chamber agreed to place Plazas Tamayo at the disposal of the Carabobo Control Court 9 “for the purposes that may be appropriate, within the following forty-eight hours after receiving the certified copy of this ruling, to convene a hearing, following a summons from the Public Ministry, in order to verify the legal situation of the previously mentioned citizen, and decide on whether or not to maintain the preventive judicial deprivation of liberty measure against him.”
