BOGOTA (Reuters) – A sixth person is suspected in the murder last month of a Paraguayan prosecutor vacationing in Colombia, the head of Colombia’s national police said on Tuesday, adding a Brazilian gang initially planned to carry out the murder in Paraguay.
Prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, known for fighting organized crime, was shot dead on the island of Baru near the Caribbean city of Cartagena on May 10, while honeymooning with his wife.
Five people were arrested last week for alleged involvement in the killing.
Brazilian prison gang First Capital Command (PCC), a major exporter of cocaine, was involved in coordinating the murder, General Jorge Luis Vargas said at a press conference, adding the crime may be connected to international drug trafficking and “radical terrorism”.
“Because of criminal coordination between them, in line with what my Paraguayan colleagues have informed me, the homicide could not be consummated in Paraguay,” Vargas said.
The police believe the sixth person allegedly involved in the crime, who they named as Gabriel Carlos Salinas Mendoza, has fled the country, likely to Venezuela, Vargas added.
Pecci and his wife, Paraguayan journalist Claudia Aguilera, announced her pregnancy on Instagram shortly before the couple were approached by two men on a beach near their hotel. She told authorities one of the men later shot Pecci.
The organizers of the murder allegedly paid $500,000 for the killing, Colombian attorney general Francisco Barbosa said in the same press conference.
Four of those detained have accepted charges and said they followed Pecci’s movements via social media, he added.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Richard Pullin)
