Red Cell Linked to Comando Vermelho Behind Ten Murders in San Ignacio de Velasco
The commander of the Bolivian Police confirmed that the ten murders recorded in 2026 in San Ignacio de Velasco are linked to drug trafficking.
Seven Detained for Drug-Related Crimes in San Ignacio de Velasco
The ten people murdered so far in 2026 in the border municipality of San Ignacio de Velasco, in the department of Santa Cruz, had links to drug trafficking. This was affirmed by the commander of the Bolivian Police, Adrián Álvarez, according to eju.tv, and he indicated that a criminal cell of seven members, linked to Comando Vermelho, was identified as responsible for the acts.
"All these cases, unfortunately, are linked to drug trafficking activities and these score-settling emerge, precisely, from these conflicts of interest within these criminal organisations," Álvarez declared to the press in the city of La Paz. The commander stressed that the victims themselves also had involvement in drug trafficking activities.
According to a review of journalistic publications and data from Bolivia Verifica, the crimes accumulated throughout the year in that border municipality. The first occurred on 23 January, in a residence in the Chiquitano neighbourhood: the victim was Alexander Pacheco, 29 years old and of Brazilian nationality. The last four murders occurred in the middle of this month, which led the national Government to deploy additional police personnel and to incorporate military personnel from the Armed Forces to controls in the area.
That security reinforcement made it possible to identify, locate and detain the seven members of the criminal cell: six of Brazilian nationality and one Bolivian. Álvarez described them as part of "Comando Vermelho, a narco-terrorist organisation with an operational base in Brazil, which intended to expand its criminal and delinquent operations" to Bolivian territory.
During the raids, the authorities seized the firearms used in the murders, motorcycles used in the attacks and clothing used in the various contract killings since the beginning of the year. "Through the course of all the intelligence and criminal investigation work, it has been possible to find the firearms with which they perpetrated these murders," the commander specified. Containers of spray paint were also found, which members of the cell used to paint threats on walls throughout the municipality.
Given the dangerousness of those arrested, the courts ordered their preventive detention. Six of them, with previous records and reports of murder, were transferred to Chonchocoro prison, in the department of La Paz. The seventh detainee was sent to Cerprom prison, in the town of Montero, Santa Cruz.
Source: Google News BO — Crime