The homicide this Saturday of the Honduran Karen Almendares joins the recent ones of the Paraguayan Marcelo Pecci and the Ecuadorian Luz Marina Delgado
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Karen Almendares
This Saturday’s murder of Honduran prosecutor Karen Almendares is the third of its kind in less than a month, after the murders of Paraguayan Marcelo Pecci, in Colombia, and of Luz Marina Delgado, in Ecuador.
Last Thursday, the murder of the Ecuadorian prosecutor Delgado and the lawyer Jeferson Mendoza in Manta, 420 kilometers from Quito, while Pecci’s murder took place on May 10. Both were in charge of cases related to drug trafficking. The motives that led to the murder of the Honduran Almendares are still unknown.
Marcelo Pecci
The prosecutor worked in the mega-operation “A Ultranza Py”, “the largest operation against organized crime and money laundering” in the country, according to the entity itself.
More than 100 raids were carried out and more than 100 million dollars in assets were seized. In addition, 30 arrest warrants were issued.
Archive image of prosecutor Marcelo Pecci speaking to the media upon arrival for an interview with Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez at the presidential residence in Asunción, Paraguay. August 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Adorno/File
In the operation, coordinated with the DEA (Drug Control Administration), Europol and the General Directorate for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking of Uruguay, seven people of Paraguayan nationality (four men and three women) were arrested and high-end vehicles, boats and nine light aircraft were seizedthat would be at the service of drug trafficking, reported the local newspaper El Nacional.
The SENAD (National Anti-Drug Secretariat) explained that it was “a 27-month investigation with special investigative techniques and international information transfer. It points to a broad criminal scheme dedicated to the trafficking of tons of cocaine from South America to ports in Europe and Africa”, indicated the Paraguayan anti-drug agency.
He then reported that the criminal organization in question is linked to some 21 tons of cocaine seized over two years in Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Paraguay and Uruguay.
“In addition, there is a scheme of companies and numerous assets forged through drug trafficking”, he stressed.
Pecci was assassinated on May 10 in Colombia. Three lost their lives being shot in an attack by unknown persons on a beach on the Barú peninsula, in the Colombian city of Cartagena.
The official was He was on his honeymoon with his wife Claudia Aguilera, whom he married on April 30 last. A few hours before the crime, Aguilera had announced that she is pregnant.
Luz Marina Delgado
The agent of the State Attorney General’s Office participated, in 2018, in an operation that allowed the capture of Washington Prado’s partner, known as ‘alias Gerald’ or the ‘Ecuadorian Pablo Escobar’.
Image of prosecutor Luz Marina Delgado. (Photo: El Universo).
Delgado participated four years ago in the arrest of Julia J.M.G., partner of alias Gerald, who had an arrest warrant for investigative purposes for the crime of money laundering. Julia was arrested in a police operation on April 17, 2018. As a result of that operation, the authorities seized USD 7,000 in cash and a cell phone.
The capture, in which Delgado intervened, happened three days after Julia JMG will regain her freedom thanks to a favorable ruling by a court of judges and after having been in jail for the crime of organized crime. The judges were prosecuted for prevarication.
The drug trafficker owns 20 ships and speedboats with which he transported drugs to Mexico with the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.During the raids on the properties of alias Gerald, the Ecuadorian Police found approximately USD 20 million stored in different hiding places.
Delgado and the lawyer Jeferson Mendoza were killed by gunmen in Manta, 420 kilometers from Quito, when they were traveling in a red vehicle that lost control and crashed into the wall of a house after its occupants were hit by the bullets.
Witnesses told the press that they heard a volley of gunshots. As soon as the incident was known, members of the National Police and intelligence agents arrived at the scene. In addition, medical personnel treated the victims and confirmed their death.
The murder of prosecutor Delgado is a new attack against officials of the the Prosecutor’s Office, since other agents have also died under the modality of contract killings. This month, the murder of an agent in Santo Domingo, 152 kilometers from Quito, as a result of a shootout, was also reported. In Esmeraldas, on Ecuador’s northern border, a former prosecutor was also killed.
Karen Almendares
The environmental prosecutor in southern Honduras, Karen Almendares, 39, was shot dead last night by unknown assailants in the city of Nacaóme, where local press reported this Saturday.
The crime was perpetrated when Almendares opened the gate of his house, in the El Chagüite neighborhood, when he was returning of a gym in Nacaóme, in the southern department of Valle, on the border with El Salvador.
According to unofficial versions, the assassinated prosecutor was the sister of a high-ranking officer of the Armed Forces Armed Forces of Honduras.
The local newspaper El Heraldo indicated that so far the motives for the brutal attack are unknown. The authorities of the Police Directorate of Investigations (DPI) arrived at the scene to begin the investigations.