Oral trial in Montevideo: "El Fisura" accused of contract double murder in Cerro
A drug trafficker nicknamed "El Fisura" faces trial in Montevideo for ordering the murder of two people in the Casabó neighbourhood in 2023. The Public Prosecutor's Office is seeking 30 years in prison.
Oral trial in Montevideo for contract double murder in Cerro neighbourhood
A drug trafficker nicknamed "El Fisura", a member of the Los Colorados gang, began oral trial proceedings last week in Montevideo for ordering the murder of a 40-year-old man in the Casabó neighbourhood, on the western outskirts of Montevideo. The operation resulted in two deaths and a house fire, according to infobae.com reporting based on coverage by Uruguay's El País newspaper.
The incident occurred in August 2023. "El Fisura" allegedly gave 60,000 Uruguayan pesos—equivalent to around 1,500 dollars—along with a black pistol to a man known as "el Cala", with instructions to kill the target. After 11 p.m. that night, Cala entered the residence accompanied by another unidentified individual and fired several times at the man and his partner, a 23-year-old woman. Before leaving, they set the house on fire. The young woman managed to contact the police and stated: "They shot at me", before dying.
According to the theory of the third-shift Homicides Public Prosecutor's Office, represented by prosecutors Andrea Mastroianni and Ana Buffa, the crime was a contract murder. The male victim had gone minutes before to buy drugs at a sales point controlled by El Fisura and then returned home. Two witnesses who testified confidentially stated that El Fisura handed over the cash, the weapon, and gave the order; when the executors returned, they reported that the job was done.
The background to the case, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, is a territorial dispute for control of drug sales points. Los Colorados seek to displace the rival Los Suárez gang from Cerro Norte neighbourhood and its surroundings. El Fisura allegedly extended his control over Casabó, accumulating several sales points under his command. This war between criminal groups is described by investigators as the framework within which the double murder occurred.
El Fisura's name was already known to authorities before the start of this proceeding. He is currently serving a sentence for complicity in an attempted murder. In that earlier case, a man nicknamed "Sicario", who acted as El Fisura's direct executor, was also convicted. Uruguay's current Interior Minister, Carlos Negro, was the prosecutor in charge of that case and described El Fisura then as a "mid-level operative" who sought to "take the place of a famous drug trafficker", in reference to his intention to dethrone the Luis "Betito" Suárez gang.
El Fisura's defence, led by lawyer Mara Cardozo, rejects the framework put forward by the Public Prosecutor's Office. Cardozo argues that it cannot be maintained that the background to the case is a dispute between criminal organisations and questions whether her client is being tried "for his history" rather than for the concrete facts of the double homicide. She adds that El Fisura knew the victim since childhood, that he was a family friend and that he helped him. The Cala defence team, for its part, denies their client's participation in the attack.
The Public Prosecutor's Office requested 30 years in prison for both accused parties, arguing the gravity of the offence and the danger they represent to society.
Source: Google News UY — Montevideo