Protected Witness Beller Alleges Cerimedo/Urquidi Fuel-Diversion, Gold-Smuggling and Drug-Trafficking Network

Nadia Beller, testifying as a protected witness to La Paz prosecutors in the illicit-enrichment case against Fernando Cerimedo, alleged he and First Lady María Elena Urquidi participated in a scheme diverting roughly 2 million liters of fuel a day from state oil company YPFB onto the black market, generating an estimated Bs. 1 million (~$84,000-150,000) daily. Beller also linked Cerimedo to a July 23 attempt to fly 189 kilograms of gold (~$25 million) out of Viru Viru airport in suitcases bound for Dubai, seized when 22-year-old Adrián Lema Roca was stopped, and to a suspected cocaine-trafficking network using clandestine airstrips in Beni department. No charges have been filed over these specific allegations; Beller remains under witness protection at an undisclosed location following the Aug. 17 shooting she attributes to Cerimedo.