The families of the four public transport drivers murdered for refusing to pay quotas to extortionists have something in common: they prefer to remain silent. They fear that they will also be killed. Largely because the murderers are still at large. The police have not yet arrested them, so the mourners understand that they are still active, extorting 20, 10 or 7 soles per day. It is the range of the price of a life, imposed with lead by criminals.
The first victim was Ruuthnam Berríos Pajuelo, 32, from Huanuco. On the night of Wednesday, August 28, Berríos left his house in San Juan de Lurigancho, at 5 am, bound for the whereabouts of the Naranjito company, located in the sixth area of Collique, in Comas.
DEATH IN THE NARANJITO
It was 10:40 pm when Berríos was driving a van with at least 10 passengers. It parked on the corner of Túpac Amaru and Revolución avenues to continue picking up more passengers. It was the third and last lap of the day that corresponded to him. Little did he know that it would also be the last lap of his life.
Suddenly, a linear motorcycle ridden by two individuals approached Berríos and one of them shot him at point-blank range in the head and different parts of the body amidst the screams of the passengers.
“Minutes before they killed him, he had left me a message on WhatsApp. He said he was coming home. We were waiting for him when they gave me the bad news,” says Rossie Arias, the widow of Ruuthnam Berríos Pajuelo.
She did not want to give further statements. I was scared. Especially for his 6 and 3 year old children. He didn’t mean to say anything that would provoke the extortionists. The murderers executed Berríos with 6 bullets, evidence of the ferocity of the attackers.
“He didn’t earn much, but he supported us. Now we have nothing. We are helpless. And the children?”, confided Rossie Arias.
Berríos had worked for the Naranjito transportation company for 5 years, which paid quotas to a gang of extortionists. But a rival group demanded that they stop doing so and disburse the money to them. So that there was no doubt as to who was responsible for the murder, they left a handwritten pamphlet: “Naranjito Company, today I will kill one driver, tomorrow another, if you continue paying Monstruo Chonguito.” From today they will not pay.” Naranjito was between two fires.
“He told me he would be home soon, but instead I received a call telling me that they had killed him. The world came crashing down on me. My children were left without a father,” said Rossie Arias.
The extortioners continued killing.
ATTACK ON THE UVITA
Less than 24 hours after the Ruuthnam Berríos crime, another van driver was shot to death in the same district of Comas. It was José Ontiveros López, from the Uvita transport company, whose whereabouts are located a few meters from where the first victim worked in Collique.
At 8 pm on Thursday, August 29, a man with a gun in his hand surprised José Ontiveros with shots. At that moment, the driver was dropping off a passenger at the Año Nuevo bus stop, a few kilometers from where the murder of Ruuthnam Berríos occurred.
The hitman who was wearing a helmet fired three bullets that hit Ontiveros in the neck. They took him to the Sergio Bernales hospital, but Galán, as his friends called Ontiveros, arrived lifeless. He was 32 years old. He was single and the youngest of three brothers. Like his father, Alberto Ontiveros, he also dedicated himself to transportation since he was 20 years old.
“My brother was an athlete, he liked cycling and lifting weights. He never messed with anyone. They killed him because of quotas for the Uvita company. There is no doubt that this was the motive for the crime,” said his brother Miguel Ontiveros.
However, despite the fact that the attack that cost Galán his life was a retaliation by the extortionists, those responsible for the transport company were not up to the task. “My brother didn’t have life insurance. The family had to cover the cost of the funeral. “It is total helplessness,” added Miguel Ontiveros, without hiding bitter disappointment. He refused to say more.
CRIME IN THE EGGS
On September 22, Jair Miller Chuquimia, 30, driver of the Nueva Estrella company, also known as Los Huevitos, was killed. They executed him at 10:22 pm near the Senati whereabouts, in Los Olivos. Miller was rescued and admitted to the Cayetano Heredia hospital due to intestinal bleeding caused by a firearm projectile. The murderers moved on a linear motorcycle.
Jair Miller’s family refused to testify about the murder. According to neighbors, Miller left four children orphaned: a daughter from a first engagement and 3 children from his second, with whose mother he lives. “He moved out of the neighborhood to live with his new partner, but he maintained a close relationship with his family, visiting frequently,” said a neighbor.
At the Club del Tiro whereabouts, located in Puente Piedra, where the Nueva Estrella company vehicles wait their turn to start their work route, some of Jair Miller’s co-workers reported that he was a family man, a happy person. and hardworking.
According to Jair Miller’s neighbors and co-workers, his mother, Carmen Chuquimia, worked as a bus collector. Since her son’s death, she has disappeared, fearing new attacks from extortionists.
“The extortionists have been operating for about three years. Their activity has increased in 2024, and they focus on collecting quotas from car owners, who pay to be able to work,” explained one of Miller’s colleagues. “The collection of quotas is every day, and the amount they ask for is 10 soles. Payments are made through transfers through Yape, or a motorcycle with two people approaches the vehicles to collect the cash. These charges are usually made in places like Bolognesi, in Grau, in Lima, during the night, or when the cars are in line waiting to leave,” he explained.
HIT ON THE NEW STAR
The youngest of the four transport vehicle drivers, Jorge Ríos Laffite, only 21 years old, was about to celebrate the second anniversary of his marriage to Dulia Julca Carrasco, 34 years old.
On his Facebook account, Ríos excitedly recounts that on October 28, 2022, when he was 19 years old and Dulia, 32 years old, they got married. The age difference did not matter to him, nor did he care about raising her three youngest children.
The family declined to comment on the homicide of Jorge Ríos. His mother excused herself from giving statements. Only his aunt María assured that he was a good boy, happy, responsible and always trying to support his mother, until he moved to live with his spouse.
He started working driving motorcycle taxis and then became a bus collector until he was given the opportunity to drive one. In the Nueva Estrella transport company, to which he belonged, his colleagues called him Pilón. At the beginning of August of this year, Jorge Ríos confided in his family that he was being extorted over the phone. They demanded 7 soles a day to allow him to drive on his route. “From there I started paying them 7 soles a day. On Saturday and Sunday we did not pay because the car had been damaged. For those 7 soles they took my husband’s life,” said the widow.
In fact, on Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22, from her cell phone, Jorge Ríos’ wife wrote to the extortionists explaining that they could not pay because the bus was broken and they had no money. He received no response from the extortionists.
On Tuesday, September 24, when Ríos left his house to work as always and was waiting in line for vehicles to leave the informal whereabouts of his company in the Pro urbanization (border of Comas and Los Olivos), he was murdered with three shots. .
Using Ríos’ cell phone, the police identified the person who was being extorted, María Elena Ruíz Bolívar. He said a criminal known as Niche was the owner of the account. She collected between 70 and 100 soles from the extorted drivers. And Niche paid him between 30 and 40 soles per day. Niche is Óscar Alexis Salinas Hernández and he has already been arrested. Niche will probably allow you to identify the criminal organization to which it belongs and operates in the northern cone.
BOX
The war between Monster and Hunchback
● According to intelligence sources from the National Police, some murders recorded in the northern cone are due to the rivalry for control of territory and the collection of quotas that are disputed between the criminal gang ‘Los Injertos del Cono Norte’, led by the fugitive Erick Moreno Hernández, Monster, and the inmate Adam Lucano Cotrina, Humpback.
● Given the wave of crimes against transporters, a special group of 20 agents from the Dirincri Homicide Investigation Division has been formed, which will be dedicated exclusively to solving murders against transporters.
● “We have asked the Public Ministry of the northern cone to send us all the cases that occurred under their jurisdiction and have been victims of hitmen,” said the head of the Homicide Division, PNP Colonel Ricardo Espinoza Cuestas.
● “The deaths are occurring due to the hegemony and control of territory between two gangs that have declared war. They dispute the business of collecting quotas by killing the transporters,” said Colonel Espinoza.
