News Release
February 20, 2007
Contact: Erin Mulvey
212-337-2906

Brigadier General Jorge Baron-Leguizamon,
Director of the Colombian National Police Antinarcotics Forces
Visits the DEA’s New York Field Division

SAC Gilbride welcomes Director of the Colombian National Police Antinarcotics Forces, General Baron-Leguizamon to New York City.
SAC Gilbride welcomes Director of the Colombian National Police Antinarcotics Forces, General Baron-Leguizamon to New York City.

FEB 20 -- On February 8, 2007 SAC John P. Gilbride welcomed Brigadier General Jorge Baron-Leguizamon and Major Raul Fernando Lopez-Castano to New York City to meet with federal and state prosecutors and to commend the exemplary relationship between the DEA and the Colombian National Police.

“The DEA’s major investigations targeting drug traffickers lead us from the neighborhoods of New York to the cocoa plants in Colombia. Our investigations result in the removal of cocaine and heroin from our streets and the success is due to the remarkable relationship we have with the Colombian National Police (CNP). General Baron’s visit represents the commitment the CNP, the DEA and our local and state law enforcement counterparts to stop drug traffickers littering the world with drugs,” stated SAC Gilbride.

FDAF Chairman Dennis Schnur and Noah Perlman present General Baron-Leguizamon with checks for families of the ten CNP Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in Jamundi, Colombia last year.
FDAF Chairman Dennis Schnur and Noah Perlman present General Baron-Leguizamon with checks for families of the ten CNP Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in Jamundi, Colombia last year.

Over their three day visit to the New York Field Division, General Baron-Leguizamon and Major Lopez-Castano visited the DEA’s New York Field Division, the Eastern District of New York and the Southern District of New York. General Baron-Leguizamon is in charge of overseeing drug enforcement in Colombia and met with the US Attorney’s for the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York and Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan for the State of New York at a lunch hosted by the Federal Drug Agents Foundation. At that luncheon, Dennis Schnur chairman for the Federal Drug Agents Foundation presented General Baron-Leguizamon with $500 checks for the families of the ten Colombian National Police Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in Jamundi, Colombia.

In addition to the several meetings with state and federal law enforcement, General Baron-Leguizamon and Major Lopez-Castano paid homage to Ground Zero and left a CNP patch in memory of those who lost their lives. They were provided a tour of One Police Plaza and the NYPD’s Operation Room and honored by D.A.R.E. with a dinner in the Little Italy section of New York. And finally, to highlight their visit, General Baron-Leguizamon and Major Lopez-Castano visited the Empire State Building for a view of New York City before returning to their effective positions in drug law enforcement in Colombia.