Teacher murdered in Bogotá: Tren de Aragua crime ordered from Venezuela
The Public Prosecutor's Office revealed that the homicide of teacher Kevin Santiago Ángel was planned by a Tren de Aragua cell. Eight arrested in Bogotá and Pamplona.
Tren de Aragua crime in El Tintal: the trap that cost a Bogotá teacher his life
The dismembered body of teacher Kevin Santiago Ángel Garzón was found inside an abandoned suitcase on a cycle path in El Tintal, in the south-west of Bogotá, in the early morning of 21 May. According to lafm.com.co, the General Public Prosecutor's Office revealed that the crime was ordered directly from Venezuela by the leaders of a cell linked to Tren de Aragua.
A community leader turned into a threat to the mafias
The Special Investigation Unit of the Public Prosecutor's Office reconstructed a plan devised with precision by the criminal organisation. Kevin Santiago, a teacher committed to the transformation of his community, had begun to interfere with the drug distribution and control zones of the transnational gang in the Kennedy district. For the heads of the network, his social work generated economic losses and resistance among residents of the area.
The trap: weeks of emotional manipulation
From the first days of May, the organisation put the plan into action. The gang designated a woman identified with the alias Alondra to profile the victim. Using a false name on social media, Alondra contacted the teacher and gradually earned his trust.
For weeks, she held personal and intimate conversations with Kevin Santiago, sent him photographs and feigned genuine romantic interest. Once she considered that trust was complete, she proposed an in-person meeting for the night of 20 May in an apartment in the Kennedy district.
Torture, murder and a chance discovery
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office case file, upon entering the home Kevin Santiago was subjected to beatings and torture before being murdered. In the early morning of 21 May, police officers patrolling the area noticed suspicious behaviour in two men who were travelling on a motorbike taxi on the cycle path. A routine search revealed traces of blood on the hands of one of them, which led to the discovery of the body.
Order from Venezuela and eight detained
Subsequent investigations established that the instruction to murder the teacher came from the top leaders of the criminal organisation based in Venezuela. At the local level, the operation would have been coordinated by a man referred to by the alias Osmer, identified as one of the main financial heads of the network in Bogotá.
A joint operation by the CTI, the Military Gaula and the Police resulted in the capture of eight people involved in Bogotá and Pamplona, in the department of Santander. Despite the evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office, none of the defendants accepted the charges of homicide, torture and forced disappearance that the judge imputed to them.
Source: Google News CL — Santiago