QUITO.- In an operation carried out in the Andean province of Imbabura, Ecuador, authorities managed to capture Carlos Arturo Landázuri Cortés, known as “El Gringo”, leader of the Colombian FARC dissident called “Oliver Sinisterra”.
This group, which rejected the 2016 peace process to get involved in cocaine trafficking, was identified by the Colombian prosecutor’s office as part of “transnational organizations dedicated to cocaine trafficking.”
The arrest was carried out after three months of intense investigative and intelligence activities. César Augusto Zapata, commander of the Ecuadorian police, confirmed the news through the social network X, highlighting the strategic importance of this capture. “El Gringo” assumed the leadership of the dissidence after the death of Walther Arizala, alias “Guacho”, in December 2018.
The detainee is considered one of the most wanted criminals in Colombia and is accused of being involved in the kidnapping and murder of an Ecuadorian journalistic team in 2018. Oliver Sinisterra, according to Colombian authorities, exercises control over drug exit corridors in the southwest of the country, facilitating traffic to Central America, the United States and Europe.
The capture of “El Gringo” represents a significant blow against the criminal activities of this dissident, which has been identified as one of the main responsible for the increase in violence related to drug trafficking in the region.
Ecuador, located between the largest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia, recently experienced an increase in drug trafficking activity, with more than twenty gangs associated with Mexican and Colombian cartels generating a wave of violence that has left numerous victims since early January.
Source: With information from AFP
