EKO HOT BLOG reports that Diego Leon Osorio, a retired footballer who represented Colombia’s national team during the 1990s, was apprehended by the authorities on Friday on charges of drug trafficking, marking his third arrest for the same offence.
The former left-back was attempting to board a flight to Madrid, Spain, on April 8, from an airport near Medellin “with 1,849 grams of cocaine hydrochloride,” police said in a message sent to the media.
Airport authorities discovered the drugs in four pairs of sneakers before making the arrest.
But police did not announce the arrest until Friday, when a video was leaked to the press showing Osorio, who won league titles with Colombian side Atletico Nacional, in handcuffs next to a uniformed officer.
The 52-year-old was previously arrested in 2002 while transporting cocaine in Miami but was released on bail.
In 2016, he was arrested again in Medellin and later sentenced to house arrest.
Osorio played for Colombia’s national team in the 1990s alongside the legendary Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama and goalkeeper Rene Higuita.
At club level, he excelled at Atletico Nacional, winning two Colombian leagues and the Merconorte Cup in 1998.
Soccer and drugs have been intertwined for the past four decades in Colombia, the world’s leading producer of the white powder, with several players arrested for links to trafficking.
Anthony de Avila, Colombian club America de Cali’s all-time leading scorer, was detained in September 2021 for links to the mafia in Naples, Italy.
Also, Jhon Viafara, a midfielder who played for Colombia’s national team and was a member of the Once Caldas team that clinched the Copa Libertadores title in 2004, has been extradited to the United States for his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking scheme that involved transporting narcotics to the US.
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