Colombian President Gustavo Petro is under criminal investigation by at least two US federal prosecutors' offices for possible contacts with drug traffickers and donations to his election campaign, according to officials familiar with the matter and cited by the New York Times.
Petro, who has a tense relationship with Donald Trump, is being investigated for suspected links to drug traffickers and possible financing of his election campaign by illegal donors.
The investigations are being conducted by federal prosecutors' offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn and mainly concern international drug trafficking.
The investigation is looking into whether Petro met with drug traffickers and whether his campaign received money from them. The investigations are in the early stages and it is unclear whether they will lead to criminal charges.
This development comes amid a broader escalation in US-Colombia relations, with Donald Trump sharply criticizing the Colombian president.
Trump, who often uses such investigations as a tool to pressure his political opponents, has called Petron a "sick man" and is seeking to pressure Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer and one of the US's most important allies in the fight against narcoterrorism in the region, for greater cooperation.
Meanwhile, Petro has consistently denied any links to organized crime and claims that his government has been successful in combating cocaine cultivation and arresting drug traffickers.
However, the accusation of funding from illegal donations has not been completely dismissed.
