Suspect ‘got’ $8,000 for killing Paraguayan prosecutor on honeymoon

Police officers present to the media the suspects in the execution-style killing of Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor Marcelo Pecci during his honeymoon in Colombia, upon landing in Bogota, on June 8, 2022. – Police in Colombia arrested all the suspects in the killing of Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor Marcelo Pecci last week. Pecci was felled by two shots while he was on a beach with his new wife on the Colombian resort island of Baru on May 10. (Photo by Daniel MUNOZ / AFP)

CARACAS, Venezuela — A suspect in the murder of a Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor, who was shot dead while honeymooning on a Caribbean island, has confessed to accepting $8,000 for the execution-style killing, Venezuela said Thursday.

Venezuela’s Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos shared a video with journalists in which Gabriel Carlos Luis Salinas Mendoza, a Venezuelan citizen arrested in Caracas on Tuesday, December 20, 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, Mendoza, one of two alleged hitmen, is seen telling interrogators.

Afterward, “I got $8,000 and came to Venezuela” across the border.

Marcelo 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 April 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.

Mendoza 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 Mendoza 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 $5 million for information on who is responsible.

Pecci had specialized in organized 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 organized and cross-border crime.

RELATED STORIES

Colombia launches hunt for missing assets seized from drug traffickers

A sweet bust for Paraguay: Record cocaine stash found in a shipment of sugar