Willy Meleán, the dejected Venezuelan drug lord and his lover committed crimes with original Colombian IDs

After last weekend the operation carried out by the Police was known in which Bernardino Meleán Frontado, alias Willy Meleán, a recognized capo of Venezuelan origin and who was the head of the criminal gang ‘Los Meleán’ , the newspaper El Tiempo revealed in the last hours that The criminal had an original Colombian citizenship card, which he used to go unnoticed through the national territory and thus evade the three red Interpol circulars, for homicide, extortion and aggravated theft.

The information was delivered by the security forces to the newspaper El Tiempo, which also assured that Willy Meleán’s lover also had an original Colombian ID with which she could freely move through the country. These data were ratified by agents of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and INTERPOL (Sijín), in collaboration with the Directorate of Police Intelligence (Sipol) who carried out the operation in the rural area of ​​Sabana de Torres, in the department of Santander, where they killed the criminal and captured the aforementioned woman.

“They were filled out in Galapa (Atlantic) and had consecutive numbers”, one of the researchers explained to the newspaper El Tiempo. The newspaper showed that the Los Meleán gang had been committing crimes in Colombian territory since 2018, the date on which the criminal couple would have issued the identification document.

According to the authorities, the individuals would have approached the Registrar’s office in Galapa, Atlántico, where they assured that they were from Barranquilla and their date of birth was August 26, 1983. However, it was possible to establish that all the information provided by the capo was false, except for his blood type, which, according to the authorities, is O +.

Another of the data provided by the authorities shows that the Venezuelan boss paid a large sum of money to have the ID issued to him on April 3, 2018. The criminal’s lover was identified as Iranitza Elizabeth Reyez Granadillo, 22 years old and was one of the three lovers of the slain capo, who also “benefited” from the illegal document obtained through gifts.

Faced with these events, the national registrar, Álex Vega, in collaboration with Interpol and the Prosecutor’s Office, began disciplinary actions against the officials who fraudulently issued the documents.

The operative

General Óscar Atehortúa led the operation that killed Willy Melean. Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo confirmed last Saturday that in the same operation five members of the criminal group were captured and another member was neutralized.

After more than six months of surveillance and interceptions, members of the Sijín of Bogotá and intelligence officers of the Sipol carried out the operation in which two soldiers were wounded.

The criminal gang committed crimes in eight cities and deployed their illicit power in Peru and the United States. It is a Venezuelan family network that carried out work of hired assassins and extortion. ‘Los Meleán have intensified their presence in Bogotá, Barranquilla, Ibagué and Bucaramanga in recent months.

On the other hand, Brigadier General Óscar Gómez Heredia, commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, detailed how the operation was carried out. According to his version, it was possible to determine in eight months the criminal networks of the gang and determine the confrontations with other criminal groups.

Gómez confirmed that the operation was carried out at dawn on November 6, in which “a staff of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police went to Sabana de Torres and carried out the operation, where it ended with the neutralization of two people and the capture of 3 more that were in that site; with the seizure of several firearms, ”the uniformed officer told El Tiempo. Gomez He added that two more people were captured in the town of Kennedy, south of Bogotá, and a firearm was seized.

The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López confirmed that the work to neutralize the criminal group lasted 10 months. “Great result of the National Police! Since the beginning of the year, intense intelligence work has been carried out in pursuit of these Venezuelan criminal gangs. Relief for Fontibón and other neighborhoods in Bogotá where they caused multiple homicides and criminal pressure, ”said the mayor on her Twitter account.