Colombian investigators believe that the massacre of six people in the country’s north-west Cordoba department may be linked to a bloody turf war between rival drug trafficking gangs in the region.
The perpetrators of the massacre are believed to be members of the “Los Paisas,” who are at war with rival gang “Los Urabeños,” General Luis Alberto Perez Alvaran, police commander of the region, told AP.
Those responsible for the massacre – believed to be between fifteen and eighteen men – arrived in the town of Buenavista and picked out six men, four from the same family, including one minor.
“They slit their throats. They arrived some [dressed] as civilians, others in uniforms, they didn’t cover” their faces, Perez said.
Mario Anaya, the director of the Cordoba Prosecutor General’s office, said that the attackers had told locals that they were from Los Paisas and that “from that moment they were taking control of the region and that the same thing would happen to everyone who worked with Los Urabeños.”
“Now there will be an act of revenge from Los Urabeños and a fight in the region to retake the zone… for control of drug trafficking routes,” Anaya said.
Buenavista local authorities expressed their concern over the wave of violence that has engulfed their region, due to conflicts between drug trafficking organizations.
Buenavista government secretary Luis said the violence has cost the lives of 56 people in the region so far this year, while in 2009 the municipality registered ten homicides.
While according to AP, there is no coca crop cultivation or cocaine production in the area, the region is a key transit point for drug trafficking routes to the Atlantic coast.