HomeNewsBriefAre Gaitanistas Looking to Control Routes through Spain?
BRIEF

Are Gaitanistas Looking to Control Routes through Spain?

COLOMBIA / 11 NOV 2013 BY MIRIAM WELLS EN

An alleged leader of Colombia's major criminal gang, the Gaitanistas, has been captured in Spain, suggesting the expansionist group is attempting to set up international networks, further displacing its rivals, the Rastrojos.

Carlos Andreas Palencia Gonzalez, alias "Visaje," was arrested while taking the trash out of an apartment in Madrid. He had already spent 15 days fleeing police on a journey that took him through Venezuela and Brazil, reported a regional paper in Cordoba, Gonzalez's home state in Colombia.

Accused of multiple homicides, drug trafficking, forced displacement and extortion in Colombia, Gonzalez was arrested following a joint operation between Colombian and Spanish police, reported La FM. He had arrived in Spain with the intention of setting up new drug trafficking routes, said the radio report.

SEE ALSO: Urabeños News and Profiles 

According to Spanish newspaper ABC, Palencia had also planned to set up a "collections office," or "oficina de cobro" -- an organization that runs extortion and debt collection with assassins used as "enforcers."

Extradition proceedings to return Palencia to Colombia and face trial were already underway, reported La Vanguardia.

InSight Crime Analysis

While Colombian criminal groups operating in Spain is not new, over the years they have gradually ceded that territory to Mexican cartels, with the possible exception of the Gaitanistas, also known as the Gulf Clan, Urabeños, and Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC), principal rivals, the Rastrojos. The Rastrojos are known to maintain a presence in Spain; various alleged representatives of the group accused of running collection offices and drug trafficking have been arrested there over the years.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of the Rastrojos

The AGC are known for their aggressive expansion within Colombia, which has seen them gain control of many of the country's major cocaine export points in brutal turf wars in recent years. Gonzalez's capture suggests the group is now looking to pursue that model internationally.

It comes soon after another sign the group is trying to gain control of the Rastrojos' international operations. Following the seizure of four tons of cocaine in the Ecuador port city of Guayaquil -- an exit point historically controlled by the Rastrojos -- authorities said the shipment belonged to the AGC.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

AUC / 5 MAY 2022

Accused Colombia drug lord Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias “Otoniel,” has been extradited to the United States, bringing to an end…

BRAZIL / 25 AUG 2022

Portugal has seized a blizzard of cocaine in recent months, underscoring the country's role as a major drug hub.

COLOMBIA / 17 NOV 2021

As Colombia and Nicaragua continue battling over fishing rights and policing around the Caribbean archipelago of San Andrés, its waters…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…