Colombian sought in Bogotá for murder arrested in Buenos Aires on Interpol red notice
Edwin Alfredo López Casteblanco, a 45-year-old Colombian wanted by Bogotá authorities, was arrested in Villa Crespo following an operation targeting vehicle thefts.
Colombian with Interpol red notice arrested in Buenos Aires while checking parked vehicles
A 45-year-old Colombian citizen, Edwin Alfredo López Casteblanco, was detained on Friday 30 October in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Villa Crespo after the Interpol Division of the City Police confirmed that a red notice had been issued against him for murder, aggravated assault resulting in death, and firearm offences in Colombia, infobae.com reported.
The operation began on Avenida Scalabrini Ortiz at number 500, where officers from the District 14 Investigation Division observed two men walking with headphones, signalling to each other and checking parked vehicles. Police intercepted them at the intersection of Scalabrini Ortiz and Aguirre.
During a search, officers found several electronic devices in a backpack, including a tablet. Authorities located the owner of the device, a 26-year-old Argentine woman, and determined that the device had been stolen moments earlier from a vehicle that had been forcibly entered.
López's companion, a 54-year-old man, was also detained as a suspected accomplice in the theft of items from parked vehicles. Both were brought before National Criminal and Correctional Court number 15, under the jurisdiction of Judge Karina Zucconi and Office number 146.
When identified at the police station, López allegedly gave officers the name Jhon Freddy Cárdenas Castoblanco. International verification disproved that identity and established his presumed actual identity. The Interpol alert had been issued at the request of the Municipal Criminal Court of Guarantees number 79 in Bogotá in connection with an investigation into murder and arms trafficking. Following confirmation, Argentine judicial authorities ordered his formal detention and initiated extradition proceedings, which are to advance through judicial cooperation mechanisms between Argentina and Colombia.
López Casteblanco had featured on a wanted poster of six men most sought for murder and terrorism in Bogotá following an attack in the Arborizadora Alta neighbourhood, in Ciudad Bolívar, in March 2022. That attack, attributed to front 33 of the FARC dissident factions, killed two minors—a five-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy—and left more than 30 people injured.
The poster was presented after a security council headed by then-president Iván Duque, former Bogotá mayor Claudia López, and former ministers Daniel Palacios (Interior) and Diego Molano (Defence). The list included López Casteblanco alongside Alfredo Miguel Vivanco, alias Gordo; Anderson Torres Jiménez, alias Anderson; Manuel Alejandro García; Yeimis Vicente García; and Johel Arrieta Siolo, all wanted for alleged involvement in murder and terrorism in the Colombian capital.
The search for this group had involved the deployment of 120 investigators and intelligence personnel, 20 mixed checkpoints between the Army and Police, and a special unit of the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF) to track possible resources earmarked for terrorist activities.
Argentine police sources indicated that the case is part of controls against groups engaged in vehicle theft in the country's capital. López's arrest follows another operation in mid-October, when Buenos Aires authorities arrested three Colombian citizens in the Mataderos neighbourhood who allegedly attempted to steal components from a Mercedes-Benz using signal jammers and communications equipment.
Source: Google News AR — Crime