The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) declared the extradition of Héctor Asdrúbal García Zúñiga (El Munra) admissible, a subject who was presumed dead, but was captured by the Colombian authorities on November 7 in a lodging in the El Bosque neighborhood, Cartagena.
After learning of the arrest, the Public Ministry activated the extradition process with a view to Colombia handing over Munra to be tried in Venezuela for aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, illicit trafficking of narcotic and psychotropic substances, aggravated association, trafficking in arms and ammunition and financing of terrorism, according to sentence 861 of the Criminal Chamber, written by Judge Maikel Moreno with the support of his colleagues Elsa Gómez and Carmen Marisela Castro.
To propose extradition, the Public Ministry submitted two files. The first is related to three robberies committed by El Munra and his associates in Maracay. One of these robberies occurred on January 10, 2021 in the El Recurso sector, Negro Primero street, Maracay (Aragua) where El Munra arrived on a motorcycle and snatched a woman’s cell phone.
Later, on January 12, 2021, on 15th Street in the Piñoñal urbanization, in the middle of a public street in front of the parking lot of a shopping center, El Munra arrived on a motorcycle and robbed several of those present, taking their cell phones.
And finally, on January 19 of that same year, 2021, El Munra took a motorcycle from a person who was traveling through the Santa Rosa de Maracay sector.
These three incursions by El Munra were reported to the Cicpc of the Aragüeña capital.
In the second file presented by the Public Ministry to activate the extradition of alias El Munra, she is classified as a member of a type of confederation of criminal gangs that operate in Zulia, Trujillo, Sucre and Aragua.
This criminal alliance was led in 2019 by Héctor Guerrero Flores (Niño Guerrero), imprisoned at that time within the Aragua Penitentiary Center from where he commanded the now extinct Aragua Train and Carlos Enrique Gómez Rodríguez (El Conejo) who operated from the Santos Michelena municipality (Las Tejerías).
Members of these last two groups, including El Munra, set fire to the headquarters of the company Productosra El Símbolo (Galletera Puig) located in Las Tejerías, as a measure of pressure to get its owners to cancel the vaccine that the criminals demanded.
Four years after the event, the members of that criminal gang perpetrated an armed attack against the headquarters of the Cicpc, Bolivarian National Guard and Bolivarian National Police located in Las Tejerías. This occurred on February 6, 2023.
For the first extradition request, El Munra has an arrest warrant issued on June 29, 2022 from the 8th Control Court of Aragua due to his involvement in the crimes of aggravated robbery and association to commit a crime.
While, for the second extradition request, the arrest warrant was issued on March 28 by the 2nd Special Control Court with Jurisdiction in Cases Linked to Crimes Associated with Terrorism, Corruption and Organized Crime. On that occasion for the crimes of illicit trafficking of narcotic and psychotropic substances, aggravated association, trafficking of arms and ammunition and financing of terrorism.
The file related to the extradition requests entered the Criminal Chamber on November 14. The magistrates verified that all the requirements established by the (Bolivarian) Agreement on Extradition signed by Venezuela, Colombia and other countries in the region on July 18, 1911 are met. And for this reason, they declared the extradition of Héctor Asdrúbal García Zúñiga appropriate “because there are sufficient factual and legal reasons for him to be tried in Venezuelan territory.”
The Criminal Chamber confirmed that the aforementioned subject will be tried in Venezuela with the due guarantees enshrined in the Magna Carta.
