The Brazilian Police managed to locate Andrés “Cachorrinho” Vargas Villanueva, a meganarco with more than 20 years of experience, in Santana do Livramento, reported Telemundo and confirmed The Observer. The man escaped on one of his temporary outings from prison, in which he had to wear an electronic anklet.
According to police sources The Observer, had one of his ex-wives kidnapped for more than 72 hours, during which he also sexually abused her. She managed to escape and alerted the police, who surrounded the place.
Vargas Villanueva is required in Rivera for the murder of two policemen from the department. Now the Uruguayan authorities must begin the process to request the extradition of the narco, reported Channel 12.
The story of Cachorrinho on the border
From the early 2000s to 2017, it was the market leader. All the narcos of Rivera and Santana do Livramento sold drugs on his behalf. “And whoever didn’t, he was going to do very badly,” warn scholars on the subject. Although he always stated that he acted on his own and did not respond to any Brazilian faction —as is the case in the rest of the cases—, several linked him to the Bala Na Cara group, which knew how to prevail on the border, although today it is almost extinct in this zone.
Cachorinho killed two police officers on the Uruguayan side and was imprisoned for years in Brazil. In 2019, a series of homicides ordered by him —and carried out by hitman Marcio Portes— allowed the Police to detect the presence and development of other groups. Of the several homicides he had executed, one went wrong. He shot a Brazilian citizen in the mouth who did not die, and when talking to the police he mentioned the name of Luam Barcellos —El Gui. It was not a foreign name for the agents. He was a man convicted in Brazil because in two days he killed six taxi drivers and for that he was serving a sentence of 130 years in prison. He is part of Os Manos.
At the same time, the troop of Jesús de Mello (El Piojo) —also part of Os Manos—, who had been imprisoned in Brazil for having arrested him in flagrante delicto with drugs, had been growing strongly. In Uruguay he had committed a homicide in 2016, for which the extradition request was made.
Between 2017 and 2019, the market was disputed by El Gui and El Piojo, who, from Brazilian prisons, gave orders to their soldiers outside. In turn, they minimized the market that belonged to Cachorinho. In this context, Anderson Lacerda Pereira —alias El Gordo— emerges, who the investigators suspected —unsuccessfully in proving it— that he was an ally of Cachorinho, also linked to Bala Na Cara.
