August 19, 2022, 18:30 PM
August 19, 2022, 18:30 PM
The Colombian prosecutor’s office will ask for an “exemplary sentence” up to 50 years in prison for Francisco Correa, alleged mastermind of the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci during their honeymoon on a Caribbean beach, the agency reported this Friday.
Correa, who according to the Colombian press is a 43-year-old former soldier who was linked to an organized crime gang, He was captured on June 3 along with four men who confessed their responsibility.
Correa did not accept the charges, while his accomplices were sentenced to 23 years in prison each for the murder of Pecci on May 10 on a beach on Barú Island, near the tourist port of Cartagena.
In its indictment, the prosecution indicated that it will request an “exemplary” sentence of between 40 and 50 years against Correa in the trial that will begin on September 19.
The accused must answer for aggravated homicide and illegal possession of weapons.
The prosecutor in the case presented “evidential material” that would show that Correa “coordinated” the movement of the assassins who arrived on a jet ski and shot Pecci while he was with his pregnant wife on a beach.
In Cartagena, Correa also contacted a couple to follow in the footsteps of the Paraguayan prosecutor.
According to the prosecution, the ex-military handed over “the money, the weapon and coordinated the logistics” to commit the murder.
Justice has not yet determined who the masterminds were.
However, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, echoed an investigation according to which the crime was ordered by the Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, 31 years old and “a fugitive from Uruguayan and Paraguayan justice.”
On Twitter, Petro shared an article from the Rebelion.org portal in which the “Insfrán clan, a cocaine trafficking network commanded by Miguel Ángel Insfrán Galeano and the Uruguayan Sebastián Marset Cabrera” is identified as responsible.
According to the post, Correa “seeks to cooperate with the US DEA and with the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to prevent his extradition to the United States.
Pecci, specialized in organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and financing of terrorism, had investigated gangs from Brazil, as well as Lebanese money launderers from the Triple Border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.
He was also in charge of high-profile cases such as the 2005 kidnapping and murder of the daughter of former Paraguayan President Raúl Cubas (1998-1999), and the 2020 prosecution of soccer star Ronaldinho, arrested in Asunción for falsifying documents.
