In the early hours of a recent Friday, elite Colombian police units stormed a safe house in Riohacha, in the northern region of La Guajira, killing Naín Andrés Pérez Toncel, known as “Bendito Menor.” He led “los Pachenca,” a criminal group that had rebranded itself as a paramilitary faction during peace negotiations under the previous administration’s “total peace” policy—an ambitious but controversial effort to negotiate simultaneously with multiple armed groups.
According to reporting by El Tiempo, the operation was the first successful strike against a “high-value target” since President Abelardo De La Espriella took office, part of a broader hardline security push. Nineteen commandos and six investigators flew by helicopter from Santa Marta before advancing on foot to surround the property.
Behind the scenes, Colombian intelligence—working with support from US agencies—reportedly spread a false rumor that Pérez Toncel had already died in a rival gang clash. The ploy was designed to provoke him into revealing his location through his communications. It worked: he used social media to deny the reports, allowing investigators to track him down using a mix of American technical surveillance and information from a human source.
When commandos breached the house, Pérez Toncel resisted with a modified handgun and was killed along with two bodyguards and his partner. He was 26 and had spent roughly eight years involved in organized crime along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
Read the full investigation at El Tiempo.
Source: El rastro de la inteligencia de EE. UU. en la ‘mano dura’ del gobierno de Abelardo De La Espriella (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Bonesaw 0311, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).