In an operation carried out in the Los Olivos neighborhood of the capital of La Guajira, in the early hours of this Friday, September 4, Naín Andrés Pérez Toncel, alias Bendito Menor or ‘Naín’ (one of the 10 most wanted criminals in the country), and his partner, Rosa Angélica Tarazona, alias La Bebecita, were killed.
The operations, carried out by the Military Forces and the National Police, had the support of intelligence officers and even data provided by external agencies, within the coordination that is already underway to take down high-value targets.
The cell phone and the call
What is known so far is that the 29-year-old criminal, leader of Conquistadores de la Sierra, had been in the criminal structure for 4 years, where he started as a hitman serving alias ‘Pinocho’.
But, in 2021, he took control of urban groups in La Guajira to such an extent that, a few weeks ago, while ordering a massacre in the south, he was getting married on one of the beaches of Palomino, to alias ‘la Bebecita’.
According to informed sources, since last week they had located the area where he was moving: “But it was definitive that he turned on one of the cell phones he was carrying, to make a call. That allowed us to georeference the exact point where he was.”
The criminal and his partner activated their mobiles to notify their families that the version that they were dead was false. That turned out to be an intelligence agents’ strategy to locate him.
DEA support?
The same sources indicated that they received information from several informants and even intelligence agencies, such as the DEA, provided relevant data.
At this hour (7:50 in the morning), the president of the Republic, Abelardo De La Espriella, landed at the Cartagena battalion in La Guajira to learn details of the operation and officially announce it to the country.
What is known so far is that a Special Forces command entered a property where the couple was also with several bodyguards who were also killed.
“Within the criminal structure itself there was a division due to the violence and the videos that alias Bendito Menor uploaded to social media challenging the authorities, the other leaders claimed that the exposure on social media was putting them at high risk,” he told the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO.
In fact, it is not ruled out that people from his structure had provided relevant information for his location.
One of the cases that most impacted the region and showed the criminal reach of alias Bendito Menor is that he had already started social control in some municipalities. For example, he ordered the ears of a young Venezuelan, whom he was accusing of abusing a minor, to be cut off.
The videos on social media
In the last month, the criminal had uploaded videos to his social media showing rifles, patrolling streets in La Guajira, and even on vacation in Barranquilla with phrases like: ‘relaxed with my princess’ and ‘achieving one more goal’.
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In another of the images, he threw phrases challenging the authorities: ‘conqueror until death’ and ‘a billion going around relaxed in all corners of La Guajira’.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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