Five Venezuelans arrested over kidnapping and murder of young man in Estación Central
Martín Pérez Burgos, aged 19, was kidnapped and murdered in Estación Central. Five Venezuelan citizens are in custody and the investigation suggests the crime was orchestrated from within a prison.
Kidnapping orchestrated from prison: five arrested for death of Martín Pérez Burgos
Five Venezuelan citizens have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Martín Pérez Burgos, a 19-year-old young man found dead after being abducted last Monday in the municipality of Estación Central, in the Metropolitan Region. According to biobiochile.cl, the Metropolitan ECOH Prosecutor's Office determined that the crime would have been organised from within a prison facility.
Martín's family reported his disappearance in the early hours of Tuesday, after the young man was last seen at approximately 21:00 hours on Placilla Street. The proceedings were immediately assumed by the Metropolitan ECOH Prosecutor's Office and the Carabineros OS9 Department.
The kidnappers demanded payment of 50 million pesos from the family in exchange for his release. As part of the extortion, they sent a video in which Martín asked for help whilst being held at gunpoint. After receiving part of the money, the kidnappers cut off all contact.
However, the investigation established that the victim would have been murdered a few hours after the abduction, that is, before negotiations with his family began. The acting head of the Metropolitan ECOH Prosecutor's Office, Pablo Sabaj, was categorical about this: "All the negotiations that were carried out regarding the payment, what was requested in the extortion, were conducted with the victim already dead. In such a way that this does not occur as a consequence of an error in the negotiation, but rather the perpetrators had the audacity to negotiate with the deceased victim and equally request payment."
Regarding the five detainees, Sabaj stated that "they are of Venezuelan nationality" and that the prosecutor's office is investigating their membership in some faction. "Some have records for arrests and there are people who are in regular and irregular situations. That is, there is the full spectrum," he clarified.
The prosecutor also confirmed that the kidnapping would have been conceived and directed from within a prison: "As in almost all these cases, the original idea of the kidnapping and its initial instructions come from within a prison facility."
Regarding how the victim came into the hands of his captors, Sabaj explained that "the young man goes voluntarily to Estación Central in a dynamic that I cannot yet confirm to you." He added that "within a dynamic of deception, he gets into the car which finally becomes the vehicle in which they kidnap him." The prosecutor did not confirm the version about a supposed drug purchase as the context of the encounter.
Source: Google News CL — Crime