The arsenal possessed by the gang founded by Yohanny Machuca (El Pepón), included two rifles and a telescopic sight, according to a partial assessment made by the security agencies that killed five members of that gang, including its leader.
A mixed commission made up of police and military agents (Rapid Reaction Unit) has been deployed in Zaraza (Guárico) since early Tuesday morning. This town on the plains is the main base of operations of El Pepón, a criminal gang dedicated to charging taxes in dollars to medium-sized agricultural producers and entrepreneurs of any branch, according to testimonies.
One of the raids by the police-military commission took place in the San José neighborhood, south of Zaraza, where two members of the aforementioned criminal group, yet to be identified, were killed.
In that neighborhood was the main house from where El Pepón planned his crimes. There, officers located two rifles: an AR-15 caliber 5.56 mm, serial number CCH026358 and a FAL (Light Automatic Rifle) caliber 7.62×51 mm.
They also found four rifle magazines, two 9 mm PGP pistols, two pistol magazines, 258 cartridges of various calibers, a telescopic sight and a fragmentation grenade, according to a preliminary report prepared by Detachment 343 of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) to which we had partial access.
During that skirmish, First Sergeant of the GNB Francisco José Zamora Pérez was shot dead.
Another raid by the Rapid Reaction Unit was carried out in Barrialito, a rural sector of the Pedro Zaraza municipality, where El Pepón had cells. Two other associates of this criminal, known by the nicknames El Alacrán and Danielito, were killed there.
At the scene of the incident, a 9mm MP-5 rifle and a fragmentation grenade were seized.
In Barrialito, other procedures were carried out during the years 2022 and 2023 with the arrest of people linked to the Tren del Llano gang, also dedicated to collecting taxes from medium and small agricultural producers.
The leader of Tren del Llano, Oscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández (El Diente), was the protagonist of acts of violence in the José Tadeo Monagas municipality (Altagracia de Orituco) on Monday, July 29, after María Corina Machado denied the results of the presidential elections. According to videos that Diente himself distributed, his men burned the offices of the mayor’s office of the aforementioned Guariqueño municipality and shot up a school in Macaira, among others.
Molotov cocktail in Camaguan
In another operation carried out in Guárico, the military seized two bags in Camaguán containing 35 Molotov cocktails and three tinderboxes.
The aforementioned material was transported by Jesús Antonio Solís and José Luis Romero Hernández, who will be prosecuted for inciting hatred, according to a report from Detachment 342 of the GNB.
