Police catch “Niño Fabian,” thought to be the head of criminal band “La Cordillera” (The Mountain Range) in the city of Pereira, central-west Colombia, Colombian media reported Monday.
Jose Fabian Guzman Patino, alias “Niño Fabian” was caught, in the company of a woman, in Villa Olimpica, Pereira, after extensive police investigations in the region.
“Niño Fabian,” is, according to authorities, the man responsible for over 100 homicides and extensive narcotrafficking in the Eje Cafetero region, which encompasses the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio, the northeast of Valle del Cauca, and the southwest of Antioquia.
“For us he was the ‘Mono Jojoy’ of criminal activity in Eje Cafetero… the headache of that zone. What’s more he directed a very powerful group of assassins and is the person responsible for innumerable homicides,” said General Jose Guzman, according to an article in newspaper El Espectador.
The organization “El Cordillero” was known for trafficking narcotics in under-resourced barrios in numerous departments of the Eje Cafetero region.
“On top of the trafficking, they also recruited people for their service, employing them in the settling of accounts, homicide, taking care of laboratories and access routes to the Colombian Pacific Coast, from where the oganization called “Comba” sent shipments of narcotics via ship to Central America, the U.S., and Europe,” said the General.
According to the investigation, Jose Fabian Guzman Pation demobilized in 2006 from an Antioquia bloc of the paramilitary structure run by Carlos Mario Jimenez Naranjo, alias “Macaco.”
“Niño Fabian” is being held in prison pending further development of the case.