The National Police have arrested Spaniard Erick de Ventura Pacheco, Peru, in a supermarket in Toledo, one of the national criminals recently included in the list of Europe’s most wanted criminals. The highly dangerous arrestee is an old acquaintance of the security forces, having been the lieutenant of the gang of thieves and kidnappers led for years by the late Ángel Suárez Flores, better known as Casper. The Europol file details how Peru is accused of kidnappings to facilitate the gang’s overthrow or stealing drugs, usually by force. He had been on the run since 2014, but since his inclusion on September’s Most Wanted List in September, many calls from citizens landed him in Toledo, where he was arrested, despite having a changed face and being “almost unrecognizable.”
De Ventura is charged with “at least 36 crimes, including drug trafficking, unlawful detention, torture, threats, kidnapping and the like,” for which he will be sentenced to 965 years in prison, according to a police statement released this morning.” The criminal group took on the task made to steal large quantities of illegal drugs from other traffickers,” Europol points out, noting that De Ventura “was an expert in various technical and computer tools,” it adds.
For years he was a key figure in one of “Spain’s most dangerous and violent gangs,” led by Casper, a thief, kidnapper, torturer and drug dealer who went down in Spanish crime history for stealing 19 paintings from businesswoman Esther Koplowitz in August 2001 and became a police obsession for a decade.
Mug shot of Erick de Ventura.
The remnants of Casper’s gang have been involved in a hugely lucrative and high-risk business for the past decade: tipping. The first trace of this activity dates back to 2009, when the gang disguised themselves as civil guards to kidnap and torture (they cut off his big toe with a machete) a ship receiver from Algeciras to steal a shipment of cocaine, which they had not received. belonged.
Police say a surveillance device was set up following numerous calls from neighbors in a Toledo town based on specific information received late last year. He lived in a house with other men, but the supposed Peru had nothing to do with the man who sat next to Casper in the national court. Thin, long beard, always in a cap and dark glasses if he leaves the house… “The monitoring and surveillance facility was maintained for days until on January 9th, a person was observed coming out of the house hiding his face wearing a hat and black glasses,” police said.
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Three agents followed the play until he entered a supermarket in a remote area, where he removed his glasses and two agents could look him straight in the face and recognize him, “thanks in part to a dimple in his right nostril, a birthmark in the middle of his right cheek.” . He surrendered and allowed himself to be stopped without resistance.