Manuel Alejandro Moyetones Castillo (Mandarria), second in command of the Tren del Llano criminal structure, was killed during a legal intervention procedure carried out by the military in the vicinity of Sosa, a rural sector of the Julián Mellado municipality (El Sombrero), the heart of the Guárico state.
In the aforementioned sector, a Rapid Reaction Unit (Urra) was activated with the participation of agents from the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command (Conas), who obtained information about the presence in Sosa (Guárico) of members of the structured organized crime groups founded by Romer Eduardo Rodríguez Torrealba (El Chachi) and Daniel Alejandro Maluenga López (Daniel Maluenga). The latter was also killed along with alias Mandarria in the legal intervention procedure carried out in the early hours of December 31, according to data collected.
In that operation, Gabriel Magallanes (El Pólvora) and a fourth subject yet to be identified were also killed.
At the end of the legal intervention, the military collected nine firearms at the site: six rifles, including a 7.62×51 caliber Light Automatic Rifle; two AK-103 caliber 7.62×39 mm; a 9mm caliber Uzi submachine gun and two 9mm pistols (Browning, Glock).
In addition, the military located 11 chargers of different calibers and four telephone devices.
Alias Mandarria served as second in the gang founded by José Antonio Tovar Colina (El Picure), who was killed on May 3, 2016 in El Sombrero (Guárico). With the remains of the El Picure band, the Tren del Llano emerged, founded by Gilberto Maloni Hernández (El Maloni) and whose main base of operations was located in the Guanapito resort, José Tadeo Monagas municipality (Altagracia de Orituco), Guárico. El Maloni was killed on November 6, 2021 in San Juan de Unare (Sucre), where he had settled to enroll in international drug trafficking activities.
After the fall of El Malony, his cousin Oscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández (El Diente) took control of the criminal group, specialized in collecting vaccines from medium and small producers in Guárico, Aragua and Anzoátegui, according to a Conas investigation.
And precisely in a hampogram prepared by Conas, Moyetones Castillo (Mandarria) appears as the second in command of the Tren del Llano. Mandarria was held in the Aragua Penitentiary Center, located in Tocorón, from 2011 until 2014 when he escaped from that prison.
Moyetones Castillo’s parents were also imprisoned in the so-called Tocorón prison and were registered as María Josefina Castillo (33) and Manuel José Moyetones Rangel (46), as well as two teenage brothers of the now-defeated criminal.
The procedure in which Mandarria, El Pólvora, Daniel Maluenga and a fourth subject were killed, occurs within the framework of Operation Zaraza 2025, one of the nine that the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Ceofanb) keeps active against criminal groups, many of which are associated with the Venezuelan extreme right, as stated in press conferences by the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado. Hair.
