Spanish police nab Colombians wanted for multiple murders

Madrid, Agency
Two Colombians sought in connection with more than 200 murders in their homeland have been arrested in Spain and are being held pending extradition, authorities said Tuesday.

Henry Norberto Valdes Marin, 36, and Mauricio Alberto Gonzalez Sepulveda, 44, were arrested separately on Sunday in and around the Mediterranean city of Valencia, police said.

Colombian police alerted their Spanish counterparts in June that the suspected hit men were in Spain.

The two suspects are reputedly linked to a kind of underworld collection agency serving various drug cartels.

Valdes and Gonzalez will be held without bail while Spanish courts weigh Colombia's request for their extradition, though the final word on whether they are turned over to Bogota rests with the government in Madrid.

Gonzalez has been in Spain "around three years" and Valdes arrived two years ago, the head of the police organized crime unit, Andres Dieguez, told a press conference in Madrid.

"We have no evidence that these two people were in contact with each other in Spain," Dieguez said, adding that both were carrying legitimate identification and travel documents under their true names.

Neither was carrying a gun at the time of the arrest, "which doesn't mean they didn't have them," the police commander said.

Valdes uses a wheelchair due to a disability, according to Spanish authorities.

Police suspect the two Colombians "could have been implicated" in collections and extortion in Spain, but have no "irrefutable evidence" to that effect, Dieguez said.

Valdes and Gonzalez were living upper middle class lives in Spain and often entertained guests at their homes, the officer said.

Gonzalez, who entered a sham marriage with a Spanish woman to obtain a residence permit, was a leader of a unit in Colombia's AUC federation of right-wing militias, which formally demobilized in 2006.

But instead of entering a government rehabilitation program, Gonzalez became an enforcer for hire, while Valdes allegedly managed a team of hit men operating in eight countries.

The more than 200 murders imputed to Valdes and Gonzalez include the 2004 slaying of professional soccer player Albeiro Usuriaga and the killings of several law enforcement agents.