Colombia’s police announced Tuesday the capture of a former paramilitary who is believed to have killed defunct paramilitary group AUC’s founder and leader, Carlos Castaño.
The director of Colombia’s National Police, Rodolfo Palomino, announced that Miguel Angel Serrano, alias “Megateo,” was captured in Ecuador on Saturday and has been recently coordinating criminal acts, including illegal micro-coffee trafficking across the Colombia-Ecuador border.
The former paramilitary had been sentenced to 40 years for murder, forced disappearance, and conspiracy to commit crimes.
The police maintain that Megateo was the commander of a 20-man squad who stormed Castaño’s paramilitary camp, killing the leader in 2004. Megateo was allegedly a leader of the Banana Bloc of the AUC, one of the many sub-factions of the large paramilitary umbrella group.
Megateo had been hiding in Ecuador since 2007.
Police are hoping that with this arrest, more information can be gathered about the mysterious deaths of many of the leaders of the AUC.
Carlos Castaño was one of three brothers who started the AUC in 1997. He was 38 when Megateo allegedly killed him in 2004.
PROFILES: AUC