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Ex-Colombian soccer exec arrested
Posted: Thursday February 17, 2000 03:03 PM
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The former president of one of Colombia's top professional soccer teams was arrested Thursday for allegedly taking drug money from Cali cartel bosses in the early 1990s. Pedro Chang, 58, was arrested at his Cali home on Wednesday on allegations that he received money from cartel front companies while president of the America soccer team from 1993 to 1994. The team was controlled at the time by Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the former Cali cocaine bosses jailed in 1995. Chang, who professed his innocence, has been managing an advertising firm since his retirement from soccer. His arrest is the latest in a multi-year investigation into drug corruption that has ensnared soccer players, coaches and executives, as well as beauty queens, ministers, politicians, and journalists. During the drug cartels' zenith a decade ago, drug lord Pablo Escobar -- the Cali traffickers' main rival -- controlled one of his hometown soccer clubs, National of Medellin.
The United States canceled Chang's visa in 1997 along with hundreds of Colombians suspected of involvement in drug trafficking from the South American country that supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine.
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