With at least 16 stab wounds to his vital organs, a young man identified as Andrés Molano Rincón was murdered on February 13. His body was found inside a gray Chevrolet Spark car in a rural area of the Tibirita municipality (Cundinamarca), nearly two hours from Bogotá, and the circulating version was that two men attacked him in some kind of fight.
But it has now been established that the vehicle in which the body was found is the same one linked to the murder of rice businessman Gustavo Aponte, who was killed on February 11.
The extermination plan
And EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established that the young man murdered in Tibirita participated in the criminal plan whose target was not Aponte, but a renowned gold businessman who frequented the same gym in the capital.
When the masterminds of the crime discovered they had killed the wrong man, they ordered the extermination of ‘the gladiators,’ the name used by the sinister gang hired to eliminate the businessman, to whom they had already paid part of the agreed money.
Molano was the first.
What the masterminds did not count on was that he had the cell phone of another hitman at his house, which contained data on other involved parties and ended up in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The WhatsApp messages
And what is now known is that two of the eight who carried out the macabre plan have already been murdered.
In several messages found on the cell phone, it was established that, for months, members of the gang conducted sophisticated intelligence work on their real target. In fact, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating a property on 100th Street in Bogotá where they met to finalize details of the criminal attack.
And in one of the forensic reports it is noted that these individuals took turns following their target, even during a trip to Medellín.
The two attempts
In one of the messages exchanged through the WhatsApp group – through which they planned the crime – it is stated that they tried to assassinate the gold businessman on at least two occasions: February 9 and 4.
On the latter date, several gang members followed him to a restaurant in Tenjo and a man identified as ‘Abuelo’ was giving instructions, even about who he was with.
-Abuelo: ‘Son, gray jacket and black cap’.
-Moncayo (hitman): ‘Father, ‘Bambam’ is telling me there is a bodyguard at the door and two more inside and the man is there. There are four. From here I jump, but we are far from the car to get there. As soon as they see us arriving, I know the bodyguard at the door will ring those inside and a mess will form. You will tell me if I jump or not’.
Connection with Barranquilla
Investigators have been struck by the fact that several members of the network are from Barranquilla.
Indeed, Leonel Enrique Llanos Paternina, the man arrested last Wednesday in Villavicencio for being the one who transported the hitman by motorcycle to La Cabrera, is from the capital of Atlántico.
(Check out here all the stories from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
And EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established that alias JJ, the gang leader, is also from that city and has an extensive criminal record. According to records held by this newspaper, he appears in a file for aggravated theft and illegal possession of firearms. And now efforts are underway to determine if the masterminds reside in that city.
The Prosecutor’s Office believes it has already located other of the murderers.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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