Colombian police on Monday said that a reward had led them to the suspected killers of a noted Italian scientist whose dismembered remains were found scattered around the Caribbean resort city of Santa Marta in April.
Alessandro Coatti, 42, worked for Britain’s Royal Society of Biology as a science policy officer whose job included giving evidence to parliament, before leaving that post last year to travel in South America.
Part of his body was found in a suitcase on a riverbank on April 6. Other remains were later found in other locations.
Photo: AFP
Coatti had arrived in Santa Marta, a city that acts as a gateway to idyllic palm-lined Caribbean beaches and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountain range, as a tourist.
Police said he was lured by a gang that planned to rob him to an abandoned house in the city, through a dating app for the LGBTQ community.
Santa Marta Mayor Carlos Pinedo on Sunday said that four people suspected of his murder and dismemberment had been arrested in raids in the Colombian capital, Bogota, the second city of Medellin, as well as in Santa Marta and the town of Arjona, near the port city of Cartagena.
At a news conference on Monday, Santa Marta Police Chief Colonel Jaime Rios said that the police had received a tip-off, which led them to a house where traces of blood were found.
“Through arduous investigative work, interviews were conducted, biological traces belonging to the victim were collected, and security camera footage was analyzed, which were all key to solving the case,” he said.
The gruesome killing of Coatti, described by colleagues at the Royal Society of Biology as a “passionate and dedicated” scientist, caused shock in Colombia.
Pinedo had offered a reward of 50 million pesos (US$12,243) for information leading to the capture of his killers.
Rios said the reward had led to a breakthrough in the investigation.
The Sierra Nevada mountains are home to a drug-running paramilitary gang known as the “Conquistadors of the Sierra Nevada.”
It is not known if they had a hand in Coatti’s murder, but they have been linked to the murder and dismemberment of others in recent years.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS