Colombian narcotics police 'have no record' of AFP anti-drugs taskforce

Two police departments on the frontline of Colombia's fight against cartels say they have no evidence of an agreement with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for its newly announced anti-drugs taskforce based in the South American nation.

In May, Commissioner Krissy Barrett announced the AFP and New Zealand Police would fund an international joint investigations team (IJIT) "to gather evidence about illicit drug shipments".

The team would include AFP officers in the capital Bogotá, working with Colombian, US, INTERPOL and Mexican authorities to curb the flow of drugs through the Pacific to Australia, the commissioner said.

A joint investigation by the ABC and the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo can reveal the anti-narcotics department of Colombia's National Police (PNC) has no recorded data that shows subscribed "protocols, agreements, or procedures" relating to the IJIT.

In a response to a freedom of information request filed by El Tiempo and shared with the ABC, the department said drug-related intelligence had not been shared with the AFP and no "operational activities" such as illicit substance seizures or arrests had been made in cooperation with Australian police as part of the IJIT.

The department also said there was currently only a "letter of intent" outlining a "framework for cooperation and exchange of information", which the ABC understands was signed jointly by PNC Major General Jesús Alejandro Barrera Peña and the AFP in August.

"The instrument does not identify the so-called 'IJIT', nor does it establish specific functions, responsibilities or procedures for this department in relation to said mechanism," the department said.

The letter made no connection between the IJIT and joint drug seizures, destruction of narcotics production infrastructure, disruption of criminal groups or the identification of international trafficking routes, the department said.

The ABC understands the IJIT agreement was made with — and expected to be overseen by — the PNC's Office of International Relations and Cooperation (ORECI) and not the anti-narcotics department.

ORECI coordinates Colombia's international policing efforts by connecting other PNC departments to global counterparts, such as the AFP.

The department focuses on strategic decision-making and intelligence and sits above the anti-narcotics and criminal investigations agencies, which oversee frontline drug and domestic crime policing operations.

An AFP spokesperson told the ABC the IJIT was not yet operational, but an "annex" agreement was made with the PNC in August in addition to the letter of intent that would allow the taskforce to "focus on transnational organised crime networks".

The AFP did not specify when the IJIT would become operational.

In a separate response shared with the ABC, the PNC's criminal investigations department said it had no data that was able to determine whether the AFP was involved, supported, funded or shared intelligence in 174 drug trafficking investigations conducted between January 1, 2025 and October 6 this year.

The department said those figures were collated based on aggregate numbers of cases and investigations outcomes that did not list specific agencies involved.

But the department also said it had no knowledge of Colombian anti-narcotics intelligence being used to "identify, locate, track, monitor or intercept" suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Pacific Ocean or Caribbean Sea as part of the IJIT.

The revelations follow ABC questions posed to the AFP in June about the IJIT's allocated budget, operational commitments and measure of how it would be deemed successful, as part of a separate Freedom of Information request.

In response, the AFP said it had 60 documents that would answer the questions.

The AFP declined to release them, citing national security and international relations concerns, and said at the time that the IJIT was "still in the negotiation phase".

It also said publishing the information would be harmful to relations between Australia and Colombia, or could divulge confidential details regarding how AFP officers operate.

In this year's federal budget, more than $1.16 million was allocated to the AFP for "ordinary annual services" in policing assistance efforts abroad and on Australian external territories in 2026-27.

That figure is expected to rise to $1.4 million next year, before dropping to $1.01 million and $1.03 million in the following two years.

But the budget does not detail how much is set aside specifically for the IJIT.

Commissioner Barrett said 17 tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, have been seized by "local and international" police since January this year and stopped from reaching Australia through the Pacific.

The ABC understands, to July this year, most of the offshore seizures were made in French Polynesia, AFP officers were not physically involved in any interceptions and none were in Australian territorial waters.

The PNC this month announced an Australian-Iranian national, Arash Ebrahimi Far, was detained in Colombia as a subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, which was not believed to be related to the IJIT.