The second-in-command of a violent Colombian gang was arrested in Texas this week.
Aderbis Pirela, 29 — one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Los Satanás gang — was arrested in New Braunfels, Texas, on Tuesday.
Pirela is wanted in Bogota, Colombia, for ties to at least four murders, extortion and drug trafficking, according to local outlet NEWS4SA.
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“[Pirela’s] role within these organizations was to distribute pamphlets, collect extortion and when they did not pay it, he obviously threatened or made an attack against the victims or their relatives,” said Bogotá Prosecutor’s Office Leonor Merchán Lopera, according to local outlet KENS5.
Pirela fled Colombia and traveled through Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border to continue his extortion efforts, General José Daniel Gualdrón, commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, told the outlet.
Pirela was apprehended by Homeland Security San Antonio in cooperation with state and local authorities, who turned him into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán is calling on national authorities in Colombia to ensure Pirela faces justice in order to keep him off the streets.
Galán also warned that actions must be taken to prevent Pirela from continuing criminal operations in prison.
“It is necessary to guarantee that they do not continue to commit crimes from prison because that eventually generates what we are seeing here,” Galán said, according to KENS5.
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He continued, “It is a call that I take this opportunity to ratify to the national government, because it is very important that those criminals who with the effort extraordinary measures that are being made of the authorities in charge of capturing and prosecuting them, do not continue to commit crimes from prison.”
It is unknown exactly how long Pirela has been operating in the U.S. or when he entered the country.
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