THE Colombian Defence Minister, a key figure in his country’s war on drugs, has been accused of conducting an extramarital affair with a convicted drugs trafficker, even having sex with her in jail.

Jorge Uribe Echavarría, 64, is alleged to have visited the 36-year-old lingerie saleswoman after her arrest on February 1, 2003. According to jail records, Dora Alzate requested that he be admitted for a “conjugal visit three weeks after her arrest.

She also claimed in a hearing that she had been romantically involved with him for 18 years, according to records published by El Nuevo Herald newspaper. At the time, Señor Uribe Echavarría, who is married, was acting as president of Delima Marsh, one of the largest Colombian insurance companies. He was appointed Defence Minister later that year. Permission for the jail visit was granted on February 28, 2003.

In an interview with El Nuevo Herald, the minister denied visiting Señora Alzate for sex. “I have never had a conjugal visit with anyone, in any prison, anywhere,” he said.

Later, however, in an official statement he admitted visiting her on one occasion. He denied having an affair with her, saying that they had been friends for ten years. He said that they had met in a public visiting area and denied any prior knowledge of her criminal activity.

“She is someone who worked for many years in a company I had a relationship with, I knew her as a very respectable person who ended up involved in a problem to do with a drug thing at an airport.”

Señora Alzate was arrested at Medellín airport while waiting to board a flight to Miami with 3.86lb of heroin in her suitcase, with a street value of a $175,000 (£95,000).

The Colombian Government has made no comment. Colombian gangs supply about 80 per cent of the cocaine entering the United States, as well as claiming a large chunk of the heroin market. Drugs fuel rival paramilitary armies in the country’s long-running conflict.

El Nuevo Herald cited records showing that between April 1995 and July 2002, the pair had travelled to Miami and Houston on six occasions, each time on different flights that arrived within hours of each other. Asked about those trips, the minister declined to speak about his “personal life”.

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