During Operation Thunder III, Miguel Eduardo Tovar Velázquez (Miguel Eduardo), second in command of the criminal organization founded by Jesús Stivenson Estévez (El Zorrito), was killed, according to police reports.
The deployment of Operation Thunder III occurred this Friday afternoon in the Cruz Verde sector of Barcelona, capital of Anzoátegui, an area where the members of the Zorrito gang have been sheltering for the last few hours.
At the site, officials seized an M-26 type fragmentary grenade.
Alias Miguel Eduardo was requested for the crimes of arms trafficking, terrorism, qualified homicide and aggravated robbery, among others.
Prior to this procedure, specifically on Thursday afternoon, two members of the senior staff of the criminal group were killed in the El Viñedo sector of the capital of Anzoatiguense. The subjects are known by the nicknames of El Ramoncito and El Primo.
In addition, in the same procedure, seven members of the criminal organization were captured from whom they seized two .38 revolvers, a 12-gauge shotgun and 82 cartridges of different calibers.
Operation Thunder III is carried out by agents assigned to the Bolivarian National Police, Cicpc, the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service.
The deployment of the Operation has had several phases, one of them staged last July when the El Zorrito gang attacked a police module located in El Viñedo, Barcelona. From that moment on, the security agencies began intelligence work to detect the different hiding places of the criminal group.
Currently, a second phase of Operation Thunder III is being developed, which consists of the pursuit of criminals to proceed with their capture, explained a source.
The organization El Zorrito is dedicated to committing extortions against merchants from Barcelona and Anaco, among other cities in Anzoátegui. The same vaccine is applied by the members of that gang to agro-producers in that region of eastern Venezuela.
