The commander of the National Police said that retired army major Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a.k.a. “Zeus,” and seven other members of paramilitary organization EGC were killed in an operation on Sunday.
An innocent bystander was also killed in the operation outside of San Francisco, Antioquia, General William Salamanca of the National Police said on social media platform Twitter.
According to Salamanca, Zeus was a ringleader of the EGC’s Magdalena Medio Bloc, which reportedly has been expanding its operations in eastern Antioquia.
The National Police had been looking for the retired army major since April when Zeus broke jail in the eastern city of Cucuta where he was held on arms trafficking charges.
Senior member of Colombia’s military mafia escapes from police station
Zeus has been associated with illegal armed groups for most of his adult life and spent more than a decade in prison.
In 1997, the retired army major teamed up with commanders of the now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC to coordinate the paramilitaries’ expansion.
Zeus met the extradited former commander of the EGC, “Otoniel,” while serving in Meta, a province in Central Colombia where Otoniel was the financial chief of the AUC’s Centaurus Bloc.”
Amid growing suspicions of criminal activity, the retired major left the army in 2005 and became one of the security chief of extradited drug trafficker “Don Diego.”
Zeus was arrested in 2008 and arrested to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges and another 12 years in prison for his involvement in drug trafficking, torture, forced disappearances and homicide.
While serving time in the Tolemaida base, Zeus was accused of plotting to assassinate journalists that had revealed the luxurious conditions granted to incarcerated members of the military.
Zeus was released from prison in 2021 after an agreeing to reveal ties between the military, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers before war crimes tribunal JEP.
During this process, the retired army major apparently joined the EGC.