CARACAS, Dec 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A suspect in the murder of a Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor shot dead while honeymooning on a Caribbean island has confessed to accepting US$8,000 for the execution-style killing, Venezuela’s Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos said.
He shared a video with journalists in which Gabriel Carlos Luis Salinas Mendoza, a Venezuelan citizen arrested in Caracas on Tuesday, appears to confess to his part in the crime.
“We rented a jet ski, we went to Baru beach (in Colombia) and we executed” the crime, Salinas, one of two alleged hitmen, is seen telling interrogators.
Afterwards, “I got US$8,000 and came to Venezuela” across the border.
Marcello Pecci, 45, was felled by two shots while relaxing on an idyllic island beach with his wife, Paraguayan journalist Claudia Aguilera in May.
The couple got married on Apr 30 in the nearby city of Cartagena.
Aguilera, who was pregnant at the time, has recounted that two men arrived on the beach on a jet ski or small boat. One approached Pecci, and “without a word”, shot him twice.
Salinas is accused of having driven the jet ski.
He states in the video that he was acting for a man named Francisco Correa, known as “El Monin”.
Ceballos said Salinas would be tried in Venezuela, where the law prohibits extradition to other countries.
The investigation has yet to identify the masterminds behind the crime. The United States has offered a reward of US$5 million for information on who is responsible.
Pecci had specialised in organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and terror financing.
At the time of his murder, Paraguay Attorney General Sandra Quinonez said Pecci had obtained important convictions in an 11-year campaign against cross-border and drug crime.
Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, is contending with a wave of violence despite a 2016 peace deal that disarmed the FARC guerrilla group and ended a near six-decade civil conflict.
Fighting over territory and resources continues in parts of the country between dissident FARC guerrillas, the ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels, particularly in areas bordering on Venezuela.
For its part, landlocked Paraguay – nestled between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina – has become an important launchpad for drugs headed for Europe.
Paraguay and Colombia have recently strengthened cooperation in the fight against organised and cross-border crime. — NNN-AGENCIES
