The leader of one of Venezuela’s most notorious criminal gangs was killed by security forces after years of evading government attempts to capture him.  

On March 7, Deiber Johan González, alias “Carlos Capa,” was killed during a police operation in a mountainous area of Ocumare del Tuy, in the state of Miranda not far from Caracas, according to an Interior Ministry publication.

SEE ALSO: Carlos Capa Gang

Two other unidentified members of the criminal group, likely bodyguards, were killed alongside Capa, a local journalist confirmed to InSight Crime.

For a decade, Carlos Capa’s gang extorted money from merchants and farmers in the Valles del Tuy subregion, as well as scams through Facebook’s Marketplace platform.

Carlos Capa had become a high-value target for the Venezuelan government, which offered $150,000 for information on his whereabouts. In October 2023, his criminal record landed him on the list of the country’s 10 most wanted criminals.

InSight Crime Analysis

After evading authorities for years, Carlos Capa has joined the list of criminal leaders who have been hunted down and killed for not submitting to the rules that the Maduro government has imposed on Venezuela’s criminal underworld.

Carlos Capa formed his criminal group in 2015 and strengthened it through alliances with members of the communities where he operated and by corrupting police officials. These ties allowed him to escape security force operations against him on several occasions.

In 2015, he was one of the targets of Operation Liberation of the People (Operación de Liberación del Pueblo – OLP), a mega-operation against criminal gangs in several Venezuelan states, in and around San Francisco de Yare, the capital of Miranda state. Then, in September 2022, he was the target of Operation Trueno IV, developed in the Valles del Tuy, which left at least 20 dead and 30 people arrested.

In addition to the complicity of the security forces, Carlos Capa took advantage of the territorial advantages offered by Valles del Tuy, hiding in makeshift camps, also known as cambuches, located in mountainous areas that were difficult to access, local residents and security officials told InSight Crime during field investigations.

As a result of his high criminal profile, Capa was the target of a manhunt, which he repeatedly dodged thanks to the support of the local community, corrupt police forces, and the geographical advantages offered by the Tuy Valleys.

SEE ALSO: The Future of Venezuela’s Hybrid State

Carlos Capa’s death is the latest in a list of criminal structures persecuted in Venezuela.  While some groups enjoy the protection of the Maduro regime, part of a system of hybrid criminal governance, those that defy the government find themselves hunted.

Among the fallen are important criminal leaders such as Carlos Luis Revete, alias “El Koki,” head of what was the most powerful gang in the Cota 905 in Caracas, killed in February 2022; Carlos Enrique Gómez Rodríguez, alias “El Conejo,” who died during an operation by security forces in Sucre; and members of the 10th Front of the ex-FARC mafia, a dissident group of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), in the border area of Apure.

The operation against Carlos Capa’s gang is the first of its kind this year as the Maduro regime prepares for presidential elections in July. The operation is likely aimed at improving the government’s image and its questionable security policy.

“Fighting crime is always going to be a good argument to get supporters, especially in populist governments,” Ezequiel Monsalve, legal coordinator of Defiende Venezuela, a human rights organization, told InSight Crime.

But the regime’s mega-operations have been plagued by allegations of human rights abuses, and in areas such as Cota 905 in Caracas there are increasing reports that security forces have taken over extortion.