Published:
22 Dec 2022 21:28 GMT
Venezuelan authorities captured two men and one of them is directly linked to the murder of the former anti-narcotics official.
The Venezuelan authorities revealed this Thursday new details about how it was planned the hit man executed in Colombia, in May 2022, against Paraguayan anti-narcotics prosecutor Marcelo Pecci.
In statements to the state channel VTV, the Minister for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace of Venezuela, Remigio Ceballos, reported on the capture of two individuals in Caracas, and one of them directly participated in the murder of Pecci on Isla Barú, a few kilometers from the coast of Cartagena.
According to Ceballos, the man directly involved in the crime against the prosecutor identified himself as Gabriel Carlos Luis Salinas Mendoza, a Venezuelan national. This subject confessed that he was the one who drove the jet ski to transport the hit man that he shot Pecci to death, and that the weapons and instructions to carry out the crime were given to him in Cartagena.
Salinas commented that at the beginning of 2022 he left Venezuela to the Colombian city of Medellín, and there he was contacted by a man named Francisco Correa, alias Monín, who commissioned him to carry out the crime and find two more people to go to Cartagena: “Eiverson, alias El Negrito”, in charge of driving the vehicle where they fled by land to Medellín and “Wender, alias El Wakala”, the hitman who shot Pecci.
Regarding the second detainee, Minister Ceballos reported that he was identified as Carlos Javier Gómez Gómez, a subject who has a criminal record and was imprisoned in Venezuela in the same prisons where Salinas was.
Gómez commented that Salinas confessed his participation in the Pecci hit man and that they paid him $8,000 to each of those involved.
“A Structured Criminal Group”
Ceballos added that the two detainees were part of “a structured group of organized crime” that is dedicated mainly to drug traffickingalthough they also commit any type of crime.
After the capture of the two men, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) made inquiries about the detainees and confirmed that Salinas Mendoza was requested by the Colombian authorities through the International Police (Interpol, for its acronym in English).
Ceballos highlighted that this procedure is an example that when there are good relations and communication with Colombia, it is possible to improve the fight against crime and international drug trafficking. In addition, he assured that with the new criminal information the investigations could be expanded.
The minister commented that it is no coincidence that in recent years, especially while the government of Iván Duque was active in Colombia, criminal groups operating in Venezuela managed to extend their operations to Colombia and participated in violent plans to generate terror against the population and attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
“Precisely, during the Duque government, the recruitment of Venezuelan criminals to commit crimes in Venezuela and Colombia is used as a destabilizing strategy. It is a crime that has a paramilitary bill, paramilitary overtonescharacteristic of that Colombian violence,” said Ceballos.
The minister also confirmed that the detainees will be prosecuted in his country, because the Venezuelan Constitution prohibits the extradition of nationals.
