The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice confirmed the 30-year prison sentence imposed on Daniel Alexander Chang Bravo, who participated in the kidnapping of two people.
Such decision is contained in sentence 701 written by Judge Maikel Moreno and validated by his colleagues from the Criminal Chamber, Carmen Marisela Castro and Elsa Gómez.
The investigations showed that Chang Bravo belongs to the criminal gang founded by Álvaro Enrique Montilla Briceño (El Loro), who has been held in the Trujillo Judicial Confinement Center since June 28, 2008, for drug trafficking. This gang has branches in La Guaira, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, Trujillo and Caracas, according to the hampogram prepared by police agencies.
Precisely, Chang Bravo operates in Valles del Tuy (Miranda) and the El Valle parish, Libertador municipality of Caracas. One of the gang’s criminal modalities is the offer of vehicles through the Marketplace platform at very low cost.
One of those affected reported to the Cicpc that in December 2021 he was a victim of that gang with the deceptive offer to acquire a Cargo 1721 truck. To close the business, the victim moved to Ocumare del Tuy (Miranda) where he was summoned by the criminals.
Upon arriving at the site, he was approached by 30 men who, carrying firearms of different types and calibers, under death threats, subdued him and his companion and took him to an adjacent location, demanding the amount of $13,500 in exchange for their release.
Once Chang Bravo’s participation in that incident was determined, the Cicpc located him and proceeded to arrest him in March 2022. Then, the subject was charged with the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, financing of terrorism, aggravated extortion, aggravated association to commit a crime and money laundering, according to the minutes of the 2nd Special Court of Control with jurisdiction in cases associated with terrorism, corruption and organized crime.
The trial against Chang Bravo took place between January 24 and November 11, 2024, the date on which the 3rd Special Trial Court with jurisdiction over crimes associated with terrorism acquitted him of the crimes of aggravated extortion, terrorist financing and money laundering. In contrast, he was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, giving him 30 years in prison, the maximum penalty allowed by Venezuelan legislation.
That conviction was supported by Special Chamber No. 1 of the Court of Appeals with jurisdiction in cases linked to terrorism on May 25. By virtue of this, Rubenangel Vargas, his defense lawyer, filed an appeal which was submitted to the Criminal Court on July 23.
In the appeal, he denounced that the trial did not determine his participation in the kidnapping of the two victims of the failed business.
The defense
At the time of endorsing the maximum penalty sentence against Chang Bravo, the Court of Appeals recalled that this man admitted to having maintained communication with the subject identified as Luigi on the date of the kidnapping and that he went to Charallave “to deliver the merchandise…”.
The Criminal Chamber states that what Chang Bravo’s defender expressed was his disagreement with the decisions made in the trial court.
Given this approach, the Criminal Chamber recalled that the appeals courts “cannot evaluate evidence, as it is an exclusive power of the courts of first instance in trial functions.” For this reason, they dismissed the appeal and left the 30-year sentence final.
