El ex director de la Policía de Colombia Rodolfo Palomino fue capturado: el general (r) fue condenado por tráfico de influencias

On the morning of Monday, November 24, 2025, the arrest of retired Police General Rodolfo Palomino was confirmed, who is being investigated for the crime of influence peddling.

The detention occurred at the offices of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Bogotá, considering that the former high official was sentenced to seven years and a day in prison for the crime of public servant influence peddling.

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Even the retired officer himself confirmed his surrender to the authorities on his X account.

“I have always respected and complied with the provisions of justice, even if I do not share them; that is why this morning (on Monday, November 24, 2025) I voluntarily presented myself to the CTI to continue responding to judicial requirements as appropriate. I am filled with sadness at the injustice,” wrote Palomino on social media.

The former director of the institution, according to the ruling from the Special Court’s First Instance, allegedly used his position, prestige, and institutional power to attempt to alter a criminal investigation involving businessman Luis Gonzalo Gallo Restrepo, who is being processed for alleged crimes related to land dispossession.

The investigation against the former director of the National Police of Colombia dates back to February 8, 2014, when Rodolfo Palomino, accompanied by then Director of Dijín, Major Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Peralta, visited prosecutor Sonia Lucero Velásquez at her residence to intervene in the case against businessman Gonzalo Gallo Restrepo, who was being investigated for illicit enrichment, conspiracy, and money laundering, according to information gathered by El Tiempo.

Gallo Restrepo, a businessman from Córdoba, had been captured after being accused of acquiring at least one hundred properties stripped by the Castaño Clan, linked to the disbanded paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), led by the late Carlos Castaño.

According to the Prosecutor’s accusation, during the meeting at the prosecutor’s apartment, the former General Palomino “invoked the social importance of the investigated and his ties with high-ranking officials, such as former President Andrés Pastrana and the President of the World Bank, to justify his intervention.”

Prosecutor Velásquez narrated that the visit lacked a clear functional purpose. Before Palomino’s arrival, she received a call from Major Rodríguez Peralta, who warned her that “the accused Palomino López wished to see her.”

This communication, according to the Supreme Court, coincided with the day the prosecutor had issued arrest warrants and the pre-dossier of the operation against officials of the Córdoba Livestock Fund to Colonel Martín Romero, a subordinate of Rodríguez.

In her testimony, the prosecutor described that Palomino “arrived at her apartment without any official formality” and spoke of Gallo Restrepo as “a honorable person for his donations to noble causes, a character of great importance given his close friendship with high-level individuals in the country, such as a former president of Colombia, high officials of the Bavaria Group, and even international banking.”

While the official acknowledged that “there was no direct request for file closure, suspension of the arrest warrant, or cancellation of the process,” she did express that she felt “institutional pressure given the hierarchy of her interlocutor and the context of the visit.”

For the Supreme Court of Justice, Rodolfo Palomino’s actions constituted undue pressure on the prosecutor.

“With the testimony of prosecutor Sonia Lucero Velásquez, this point is conclusive as she expressed feeling ‘intimidated’ and pressured by the presence of General Palomino. For that reason, after Gallo Restrepo’s interrogation, she immediately released him without verifying the information provided by the defense, given the short time she had to resolve his legal situation,” reads the ruling issued by the high court.

On November 19, 2025, the First Instance Chamber of the Supreme Court issued the arrest order against Rodolfo Palomino. The ruling was presented by Magistrate Jorge Emilio Caldas Vera, who expressed partial disagreement regarding the immediate arrest order, believing the detention should only occur once the decision was finalized.

“In the case of General (r) Palomino López, there are no sufficiently founded reasons to deprive him of his liberty immediately, meaning before the sentence is definitive. The severity of the conduct and the message to be sent to society—through a form of instrumentalization—cannot be the only criterion. All criminal processes, by their very nature, carry extreme relevance for society,” clarified the magistrate.