Colombia’s police released a video of the operation that killed paramilitary drug lord “Cuchillo” in the early hours of Christmas Day.
The video, filmed from a Colombian Air Force aircraft, shows how helicopters monitor the ranch where Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero, alias Cuchillo, and his men were hiding, before being attacked by police forces.
Colombia’s Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera told W Radio that the drug lord drowned while attempting to flee the police raid, which has been dubbed “Operation Diamond.”
Rivera said that troops attacked Cuchillo’s house in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve when the drug lord was having Christmas dinner. The defense minister added that Cuchillo and his men were drunk when the military made their attack. The drug lord and two of his bodyguards escaped through the thick bush.
Officials did not find Cuchillo’s body immediately. “The search continued … four days later we found in a creek … a body that had been in the water for four days. The hypothesis we use is that he attempted to cross the creek, fell … and drowned,” said Rivera.
On Wednesday President Santos confirmed that Rivera had been killed in a raid. According to Santos, Cuchillo’s death “is the heaviest blow given to the neo-paramilitary groups, who “are all going to go down.”