Police in the northwest of Colombia on Sunday killed “Giovanni,” one of the two leaders of “Los Urabeños,” the most powerful neo-paramilitary group in the country.
The neo-paramilitary drug lord was killed in combat with police forces in Acandí, a municipality in the Uraba region ten miles south of the Panama border.
According to newspaper El Colombiano, five other suspected members of the Urabeños were arrested.
“Giovanni,” whose real name was Juan de Dios Uzuga began his criminal career as a fighter in guerrilla group EPL and, like paramilitary drug lord “Don Berna,” joined the paramilitary AUC after the official 1991 demobilization of the EPL.
After the official demobilization of the AUC, “Don Mario,” “Giovanni” and his brother Dario Antonio transformed their paramilitary blocks into the “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia” which later became known as Los Urabeños.
The Uzaga brothers took over the “Urabeños” after the april 2009 arrest of Daniel Rendon, alias “Don Mario” and turned in one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.