Colombia’s Attorney General issued indictments on Tuesday against 14 producers and representatives of banana exporters for the crime of financing a paramilitary group.

The accusations relate to activities carried out between 1996 and 2004, according to the Attorney General, and resulted in payments amounting to 33,392 million pesos to the front Arlex Hurtado of the now defunct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

“These people apparently paid the paramilitary structure three cents per box of bananas that left the country for international markets,” the Attorney General’s office said. “In exchange, the leaders of the illegal armed group agreed to provide them with security and allow them to continue their commercial operations in Urabá, Antioquia.”

The disbursements were linked to an operation called 'Convivir Papagayo', managed by Alberto Osorio Mejía, sentenced to 4 years in prison in 2009; and Arnulfo Peñuela Marín, sentenced to 6 years in 2010, for links with the Arlex Hurtado front.

The 14 businessmen involved are accused of the crime of “aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime in the form of promotion and financing of armed groups organized outside the law, conduct declared against humanity.”

The accused were named as: Óscar Enrique Penagos Garcés, Carlos Sergio Nicolás Echavarría Mesa, Santiago Antonio Uribe López, José Gentil Silva Holguín, Rosalba Zapata Cardona, Iván Darío Mejía Restrepo, Fabio León Restrepo Villegas, Javier Francisco Restrepo Girona, Óscar Luis Aristizábal Vahos, Jaime Restrepo Marulanda, Alberto León Mejía Zuluaga, Jaime Mauricio Restrepo Arango, Diego Andrés J. Restrepo Londoño and Jaime Leaver Wagner.

In 2022,  Colombia ranked as the world's fourth largest banana exporter by volume at 2,224,395.36 tons valued US$979 million, according to United Nations statistics.