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According to DEA records, Petro has been linked to several investigations since 2022, largely based on testimonies from confidential informants. These inquiries revolve around his alleged connections with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, as well as a purported plan to exploit his “total peace” initiative to aid significant traffickers who allegedly supported his presidential bid. The documents also hint at the possibility of using law enforcement to facilitate the smuggling of cocaine and fentanyl through Colombian ports.
The DEA classifies individuals as “priority targets” when they are considered to have a substantial impact on the drug trade. However, it remains uncertain when Petro was assigned this designation by the agency.
Petro has firmly denied any involvement with drug traffickers, asserting that he never received campaign contributions from such sources. In a statement posted on X Friday, he expressed confidence that U.S. legal processes would eventually expose the allegations made by the Colombian far right as baseless, even suggesting that this group is the one truly linked to traffickers.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s Embassy in Washington has dismissed these reports as “unverified” and based on anonymous claims from preliminary investigations.
“The reported insinuations lack any legal or factual foundation,” the embassy declared in an official statement.
The inquiry
The person said it wasn’t clear whether federal prosecutors have implicated Petro in any crime.
The investigation is focusing at least in part on allegations that representatives of Petro solicited bribes from drug traffickers at the Colombian jail La Picota in exchange for a promise that they not be extradited to the U.S., one of the people said.
Petro has consistently denied allegations of drug trafficking, particularly after Trump labeled him an “illegal drug leader” and the Treasury Department sanctioned him in late 2025 for alleged ties to the trade without offering evidence.
U.S. federal prosecutors declined to comment. The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The federal inquiry was reported earlier Friday by The New York Times.
The inquiries into Petro are in the early stages, and it is not clear whether they will result in charges, according to another person familiar with the matter, adding the White House has had no role in the investigations.
The DEA records reviewed by the AP are based in part on tips from confidential sources that point to Petro’s possible involvement with a range of criminal groups that have dominated the South American drug trade for years. Those include Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel as well as the Cartel de los soles, or Cartel of the Suns, a term used to describe a loose network of corrupt, high-ranking military officers in neighboring Venezuela.
The records also cite a 2024 interview with an unnamed source who claimed Petro is utilizing former campaign aides and officials from state-run oil company Ecopetrol to launder presidential funds into foreign countries for Petro’s use upon completion of his presidency.
Ecopetrol President Ricardo Roa vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to AP, saying they “lacked all reality or logic.”
Family members under scrutiny
Petro, a former rebel leader, soared into office promising to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and reallocate state resources to addressing entrenched poverty.
A leftist politician known for winding sometimes incoherent speeches, he has regularly criticized the Trump administration over its support for Israel, bombing of drug boats in the Caribbean and likened the White House migration crackdown to “Nazi” tactics.
After one such outburst, at a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, Trump retaliated by revoking Petro’s U.S. visa. He also briefly slapped high tariffs on Colombia over Petro’s refusal to accept deportation flights from the United States.
But more recently the two have shown signs of getting along. After a meeting at the White House in February, Trump described Petro as “terrific.”
Colombian authorities have for years been investigating members of Petro’s family for possible criminal acts.
His son, Nicolás Petro, was charged in 2023 with soliciting illegal campaign contributions from a convicted drug trafficker to fund a lavish lifestyle of expensive cars and homes. The younger Petro has pleaded not guilty and his father has said none of the money was used to fund his campaign.
The president’s brother, Juan Fernando Petro, has also been implicated in secret negotiations that allegedly took place with imprisoned drug traffickers to shield them from extradition to the U.S. in exchange for their disarmament.
Politics and cocaine
Politics in Colombia have long been tainted by cocaine, of which it is the world’s largest supplier. In the 1980s, drug lord Pablo Escobar was elected to the country’s Congress with the support of one of Colombia’s most traditional parties. A decade later, his rivals from the Cali cartel flooded the presidential campaign of Ernesto Samper with illegal donations.
The now defunct urban guerrilla group Petro belonged to, the 19th of April Movement, has long been suspected of taking money from Escobar’s Medellin cartels as part of its deadly siege of the Supreme Court in 1985. Petro did not participate in the attack, which left several guerrillas and around half the high court’s magistrates dead. Leaders of the group have always denied any links to the cartel.
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Goodman reported from Miami. Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Mike Sisak contributed from New York and Astrid Suárez from Bogotá, Colombia.