A group of unidentified men, under the cover of darkness, stole the body of gangster Junior Roldán, murdered a few months earlier, from a cemetery in Envigado, Colombia, media report. The former leader of one of the most powerful prison gangs in Ecuador “had many enemies,” the BBC pointed out, recalling Roldán’s scores with members of rival criminal groups.
The body of Junior Roldán with gunshot wounds to the head was found in a forest in the Colombian province of Antioquia on May 6 this year. According to the BBC, the former leader of the Los Choneros gang fled to… Colombia after surviving two attempts on his life in his hometown Ecuador. Because no one came forward to claim his body, on May 18, the man was buried in a tomb in the central cemetery in Envigado, several kilometers south of Medellin.
Cemetery in EnvigadoGoogle Maps
A cemetery employee noticed an open gate on Tuesday morning. After entering the necropolis, he discovered that Roldán’s body had disappeared from one of the crypts, the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo” reported on Thursday, citing the local authorities. Police told local media that several men broke into the cemetery at night and took the bodies. Their motives have not yet been established.
The gangster’s body was stolen from the cemetery
“Roldán had many enemies,” the BBC portal pointed out on Thursday, recalling that before the gangster escaped from Ecuador, he was shot by members of the rival Los Lobos gang, and had previously survived an attack when explosives attached to him were detonated over the wing of the prison where he was imprisoned. to the drone.
The Los Choneros gang was mainly involved in drug trafficking and extortion. After many of its members were put behind bars, it became one of the most powerful prison gangs in Ecuador, controlling many aspects of life inside the country’s penitentiaries as well as conducting criminal activities outside them. “Los Choneros are believed to be behind some of Ecuador’s most gruesome prison fights, in which dozens of inmates have been killed,” the British broadcaster noted.
Prison gangs in Ecuador
Since February 2021, prisons in Ecuador have been the site of repeated bloody fights between gangs competing for the drug market. At the end of July, the Ecuadorian authorities declared a state of emergencyto regain full control over prisons, including in Guayaquil, where fighting took place between criminal groups. A large-scale operation was carried out by security forces in the country, the aim of which was to free dozens of guards who had been taken hostage by prisoners.
Guayaquil, EcuadorGerardo Menoscal/Agencia Press South/Getty Images
Main photo source: Google Maps