A prosecutor from Tingo María, a city in Peru’s north-central Huánuco department, has opened an investigation of husband of lawmaker Nancy Obregón for alleged drug trafficking.
According to a report by daily El Comercio, the criminal investigation against Obregón’s husband, Fabio Chávez, is based on testimony by five people, including three minors, who were arrested during a police operation on a drug processing lab.
Police found two maceration pits, drug processing chemicals, and 6,000 kilograms, or 13,200 pounds, of coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine.
Two of the individuals arrested reportedly told police the property and drug processing materials belonged to Chávez, a 49-year-old former police officer.
Obregón – a member of opposition leader Ollanta Humala’s Nationalist Party – denied any knowledge of her husband’s alleged ties to drug trafficking. She added that they have been separated since 2006.
“Here we have an investigation process, I can’t give an opinion about a process in progress,” Obregón said. “I just found out that my family is being investigated, and I haven’t been in contact with them.”
Peru is the world’s second largest producer of cocaine, after Colombia, and Huánuco’s Upper Huallaga Valley is the country’s top coca producing area.
According to a study by Peru’s Catholic University, the area used to cultivate coca in Huánuco increased from 9,600 hectares in 2000 to 18,000 hectares in 2008.
