Some agro-producers serve as “bell ringers” of the plain trainproviding key information for the criminal group to undertake the collection of vaccines in municipalities in eastern Guárico, according to information obtained from security agencies.
The criminal organization plain train It has been operating from Altagracia de Orituco (Guárico) for more than 10 years, but in 2021 it was touched by Colombian drug trafficking groups to help them design a safe route to transport their drug shipments, according to intelligence reports. Because of this, the Tren del Llano began an expansion process towards several municipalities of Guárico that connect with the east and the mouth of the Orinoco River.
For this reason, they have installed cells in the municipalities of Guariqueños Leonardo Infante (Valle de la Pascua), José Félix Ribas (Tucupido), Pedro Zaraza (Zaraza), Santa María de Ipire, San Gerónimo de Guayabal (Guayabal) and Esteros de Camaguán (Camaguán). . In these areas they have deployed with the idea of clearing the rural area, for which they charge vaccines that range between 20 and 30 thousand dollars. When farm owners cannot pay, they send an emissary to sell the property at a price well below its real cost.
To carry out this task, they have recruited some agro-producers from Guárico who serve as researchers for their own field partners, with the purpose of gathering information on their income, among other things. Said information is transmitted to the Tren del Llano organization, whose leaders undertake measures to take control of those territories and give free passage to drug trafficking.
Four days ago a military operation took place between Valle de la Pascua and Tucupido, to locate a cell of the Tren del Llano that has terrorized the agro-producers in the area.
The military commission arrived at a farm taken over by the criminals who were informed minutes before by their agro-producing partners about this deployment of the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command (Conas) and the Army Battalion 913.
Armed with this key information, the criminals set up an ambush against the military commission, attacked them and killed two sergeants, events that occurred on April 13 in the La Reforma sector, a rural road that connects Tucupido and San Rafael de Laya, route where in May 2022 they found the shot corpse of Carlos Pirela, the one who served as ringleader of the Tren del Llano in Zaraza.
