Colombia’s National Police reported Tuesday that they have apprehended 120 alleged gang members during the 10 days of 2011. Included in the haul were key members from some of Colombia’s most notorious narcotrafficking groups, more than 1500 kilos of narcotics, and various weapons.
The police said that they detained two important members of the Colombian Popular Anti-Terrorist Army (ERPAC), so soon after their infamous boss Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero Castillo, alias “Cuchillo,” was gunned down just before the New Year.
ERPAC member Fauner Jose Barahona Rodriguez was ambushed in a house in Villavicencio and stands accused of kidnapping, torture and homicide, and Obed Enrique Catalán Solipaz, who was captured near the Atlantic Coast, in Malambo, was a key link in the drug-trafficking route.
Elsewhere, two members of the most wanted cartels in Medellin and Sucre, the “Office of Envigado” and “Los Urabeños” respectively, were also arrested. Yet the most important capture, according to the police, was that of Wilmar Lopez Vasquez. Vasquez, the alleged assassin for “Los Rastrojos”, in Antioquia, has been accused of at least 10 homicides committed in the Valley of Aburra.
While 82 of the 120 gang members arrested were affiliated to gangs in Medellin, further detentions targeted prominent gangs such as “Los Rastrojos”, “Los Urabeños,” “Los Paisas” and “ERPAC.”