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The United States is actively investigating potential links between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and drug trafficking networks.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, the relationship between President Trump and President Petro has been rocky to say the least. Over the last year, Trump repeatedly accused Petro of being a drug trafficker and directly blamed him for the influx of cocaine coming into the United States. Petro has fired back by referencing the Epstein files, which he implied showed that President Trump and other US officials had ties to pedophilia. Their feud escalated as the US launched strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats from Venezuela and Colombia, actions Petro condemned as reckless and inhumane. The tensions peaked when the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Petro, his wife, his son, and his interior minister, alleging involvement in global narcotics trafficking claims that Petro strongly denied. Ultimately, Trump held a face-to-face meeting with Petro at the White House earlier this year, after which Trump changed his tone and said Petro was a “great man.”

What’s going on now: First reported by The New York Times and then picked up by various international media outlets, two separate US criminal investigations are reportedly underway involving President Petro. According to the reporting, the probes are being led by federal prosecutors in New York, alongside agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security. The investigations are exploring allegations that Petro may have had meetings with drug traffickers and that individuals linked to organized crime could have attempted to funnel money into his 2022 presidential campaign. These lines of inquiry stem from broader narcotics trafficking cases in Latin America, where Petro’s name reportedly emerged during ongoing probes.

At this stage, authorities have not presented evidence publicly, and it remains unclear whether the investigations will result in any formal charges.

Petro has strongly denied all allegations. In a public statement, he said, “I have never in my life spoken with a drug trafficker,” and added that he instructed his campaign team to reject illegal funding, stating he told them not to accept donations from “bankers or drug traffickers.” He also stressed that prior scrutiny of his campaign finances found no wrongdoing, adding, “a thorough and intense investigation into my presidential campaign did not find a single peso from drug traffickers.”

Colombian officials have also pushed back on the claims, noting that there has been no formal notification from US authorities regarding any investigation.