Angel de Jesus Pacheco, alias “Sebastian,” a leader of the drug trafficking organization “Los Rastrojos,” was reportedly betrayed and murdered by his own bodyguards Monday.
Prosecutors have confirmed that the body is that of Sebastian, El Tiempo reported.
According to the commander of the Antioquia Police Division, Colonel Jose Gerardo Acevedo, the body was found tied to a tree in a rural town in the municipality of Causasia in Bajo Cauca, in the northwest of the Antioquia department. There were indications that he was tortured.
Sebastian’s escorts supposedly called the police to report that they had killed the drug trafficking leader. His guards, aliases “Muelas” and “El Negro,” are thought to be responsible.
The crime boss began as a mid-level paramilitary commander in the Central Bolivar Bloc, where he assumed the control of the groups drug trafficking operations. He rose to prominence after the bloc’s demobilization and became one of the leaders of “Los Paisas,” a vicious drug gang responsible for much of the violence in the Bajo Cauca region in 2008.
He broke from Los Paisas in 2010 with hundreds of armed men to join Los Rastrojos. The two organizations are involved in a war against each other and “Los Urabeños” to control drug smuggling territories in Bajo Cauca.
The Colombian government has offered a $50,000 reward for Sebastian’s capture and Spain currently has an extradition request for the leader for narco-trafficking.
Antioquian police hold Sebastian responsible for the murder of 10 farmers in March 2011, Caracol Radio reported. Authorities say the farmers were slaughtered for refusing to pay extortion fees to Los Rastrojos for harvesting illicit crops.