The joint and coordinated work was the key to neutralize Walter Patricio Arízala alias 'Guacho', who was considered as one of the main leaders of the Residual Organized Armed Groups (GAO-r); who through narcotics trafficking, kidnapping and extortion had hit the region of the pacific south of the department de Nariño.
Thanks to intelligence and the strategic deployment of the troops in the village Azúcar - Piedra Fina in the municipality of Tumaco (in the department of Nariño), it was possible to find alias 'Guacho', ending 11 years of criminal career of one of the most wanted criminals in the border area of Colombia and Ecuador.
In development of the joint operation Perla IX of the Military Forces, coordinated by the National Police and with the support of the Attorney General's Office, troops of the Joint Special Operations Command arrived at the place where alias 'Guacho' was hidden, where a firefight took place and left the death of alias 'Guacho' and one of his trusted men.
With this neutralization, the residual GAO “Oliver Sinisterra” and the command and control structure responsible for the maintenance of illegal routes of narcotics trafficking in this region of the country are severely hit.
Criminal record
Walter Patricio Arízala, alias 'Guacho', was not only the leader of the residual Organized Armed Group Structure 'Oliver Sinisterra', but in the same way he was the largest drug trafficker in that area of Colombia and partner of several Mexican cartels, wanted through a red notice by Interpol, and considered a highly dangerous criminal.
Alias 'Guacho', 29, born in Limones, Ecuador, has a criminal experience of 11 years. He joined the Farc front 29 in 2007, and in 2012 he became head of finances for the mobile column 'Daniel Aldana', structure whose later he became main ringleader.
During the negotiations of the government with the Farc he was in the Transitional Veredal Zone of Normalization El Playón. However, at the beginning of 2017, due to disagreements with alias 'Romaña', he defected and created his own armed structure known as 'Guerrillas Unidas del Pacífico and / or Frente Oliver Sinisterra '.
He is responsible for the attack in May – 2013 against the Marine Infantry Battalion No. 40, where an infantry man was killed and four other military were wounded, including two non-commissioned officers. In April 2017, he ordered and directed the kidnapping of two policemen during eradication work in the municipality of Llorente (Tumaco). On October 6, 2017, he ordered an attack against troops in charge of eradicating illicit plantations which was carried out in Puerto Rico, rural area of Tumaco (Nariño), and left 6 civilians killed and 16 wounded by the use of weaponized gas cylinders and rifle shots.
Last January 29, he directed the attack with a car bomb against the San Lorenzo Police Station (Esmeraldas-Ecuador), with 28 wounded people. On March 26 of this year, alias 'Guacho' ordered the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the two journalists and the driver of El Comercio newspaper of Ecuador and the murder of a couple of Ecuadorians.
Alias 'Guacho' controlled the entry and exit of cocaine hydrochloride and liquid and solid precursors in the department of Nariño.
Their criminal operations against the civilian population and Security forces in the municipality of Tumaco, in the department Nariño and the Province of La Esmeralda, in Ecuador, left 48 victims (15 dead, 28 injured and 05 kidnapped).
