The ERPAC’s leaders are former paramilitaries, at least one of whom helped organized an ambush and murder of the original leader of their paramilitary group in 2004. ERPAC’s stronghold is the Eastern Plains, specifically the Meta, Guaviare, Vichada and Casanare departments. It controls production of base and processed cocaine, or HCL, sells it to middlemen or exports it itself through networks it has established in Venezuela and Brazil.
Origins
Like many of its cohorts, ERPAC is a product of Colombia’s internal conflict. The ERPAC traces its roots to fighting between the government’s proxies, the right-wing paramilitary groups, and leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) in the Eastern Plains. There, members of what was known as the Bloque Centauros, under the leadership of José Miguel Arroyave, battled the FARC rebels for control of the region.
But from the beginning, the Centauros seemed more interested in the commercial than the military side of their work, which is why, in 2003-04, they launched a fight against a rival paramilitary group for control of the lucrative drug route through the Casanare department near the Venezuelan and Brazilian borders. More than one thousand died in the fighting. The Centauros won the battle but more infighting ensued. And in September 2004, a group led by Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero, alias "Cuchillo," ambushed and killed the Centauros leader Arroyave, giving rise to new conflicts and a new organized criminal gang, ERPAC.
The ERPAC has thrived by allying itself with Daniel Barrera Barrera, alias "El Loco," and doing business with its former enemy, the FARC. Barrera, who is also aligned with the powerful Rastrojos criminal gang, is one of Colombia’s most wanted drug traffickers. The ERPAC and Barrera have used the Eastern Plains as their headquarters and regularly purchase coca base, the raw material used to make powdered cocaine, from the FARC, before processing it in Colombian-based laboratories in the Eastern Plains and exporting it via Venezuela and Brazil. Authorities believe Oliveiro and Barrera export between two and three tons per month. Some of their product goes to Europe via impoverished West African nations such as Guinea-Bissau. They also sell their product to Mexican drug cartels operating in Mexico, Guatemala and other transit nations. In March 2010, the US Treasury designated Oliveiro and Barrera the two most wanted Colombian traffickers.
The ERPAC does more than traffic drugs. Using its overwhelming firepower, this group also steals land, robs trucks, rustles cattle and extorts money from local businesses and wealthy farmers. And its contacts in the armed forces and police have given the group an advantage against numerous rivals over the years.
Modus Operandi
The ERPAC are a former army and therefore operate as such, attempting to control territory militarily in order to process and store illegal drugs, as well as terrorize the local population into submitting to its will. It has little ideology aside from its quest to make money from illegal activities and has made an important strategic alliance with Barrera and the FARC in order to achieve this goal. The ERPAC operates mostly in remote areas of the Eastern Plains such as the departments of Casanare, Guaviare, Meta and Vichada. It buys coca base from the FARC, processes it in the Eastern Plains and exports it mostly out of Venezuela by airplane or via the Pacific coast on boat. It is attempting to expand to other areas, including Norte de Santander and the Magdalena Medio region in the heart of the country. Some group cells have also appeared in Huila, Caquetá, Cauca and Putumayo, traditional guerrilla strongholds. Some police intelligence reports also say they also have a “presence” in Arauca, Huila, Cundinamarca and Guainía.
The group is also attempting to take further control over the Eastern Plains, authorities say, as indicated by its recent battles with the traditional strongman of the region, Víctor Carranza, known as Colombia's "Emeralds Tsar," and remnants of the former paramilitary group, the Peasant Self-defense Groups of Casanare (Autodefensas Campesinas de Casanare - ACC). The fight with the ACC dates back to the 2003-2004 when the Centauros Bloc battled with the group for control of the lucrative drug routes through the Eastern Plains. ERPAC has also fought with the other former paramilitary groups that have turned into criminal organizations, namely the Macacos, who operated under the auspices of the jailed and now extradited leader of the Central Bolívar Bloc, Carlos Mario Jiménez, alias "Macaco."
Significant evidence has also emerged pointing to collaboration between the ERPAC and corrupt elements in the police, army and intelligence agency the DAS, now disbanded.
2010 was a difficult year for ERPAC, with several top operatives arrested. These include two of the founding members of the group, Martin Farfan, alias "Pijarbey," (arrested December 2009) and Jose Covey Romero Zarate, who handled drug shipments from Vichada to Venezuela. In order to fill the holes in the ERPAC's command, Guerrero's brother, Dumar de Jesús Guerrero Castillo, alias "Carecuchillo," escaped from prison and tried to reconnect with his brother's group. However, he was recaptured a few months later.
In another sign of the group losing momentum in the Eastern Plains, in March the ERPAC botched its second assasination attempt against its rival Víctor Carranza, an emerald dealer and alleged drug trafficker in the region. The group did manage to deepen its relationship with the FARC, after Guerrero met with the head of the 39th Front in eastern Meta in February, in order to negotiate the movement of drugs and precursor chemicals through rebel-controlled territory.
The most significant blow against the ERPAC came during Christmas 2010, when Guerrero drowned in a creek while trying to escape a police raid on his ranch in Mapiripan, Meta. His second-in-command, Harold Humberto Rojas, alias "El Loco Harold," was also captured during the operation. He was the head of the ERPAC's security detail, meaning the man next-in-line to take command was the group's head of finances, another life-long paramilitary warrior.
The ERPAC's new leader, Jose Eberto López Montero, alias "Caracho," lacked Guerrero's charisma and contacts in the drug trade. He soon faced the prospect of a fragmented ERPAC when a faction in Guaviare abandoned the group and began working as mercenaries for the FARC's First Front. López Montero moved quickly to confront the threat, sending a team of 50 armed men to defend ERPAC territory in the department. But he faced further challenges to his command, as other mid-level operatives tried to strike out on their own and establish their own drug-trafficking operations.
Questions remain over López Montero's ability to maintain discipline in the ERPAC's inner ranks, and the group continues to face significant institutional as well as military challenges ahead. In some ways, López Montero's decision to grant a rare interview with a Colombian magazine in November 2011 is an attempt to project himself as the ERPAC's confident, and unquestion leader. This, even though he spoke of his alleged desire to disband the organization.
Resources
- "Treasury Sanctions Colombian Trafficker,"U.S. Treasury Department 14 January 2010.
- “International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - 2009,” U.S. Department of State (March 2010).
- "Daniel Barrera, el narco mas fuerte," El Tiempo, 5 May 2008.
