Prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, murdered in Colombia on Tuesday (10), was a nationally and internationally recognized figure for his work in the fight against drug trafficking.
From “exceptional prosecutor” to “impeccable servant,” praise has multiplied for this Paraguayan Public Ministry official who “started from the bottom,” according to the attorney general, and was now leading high-profile cases.
Pecci was on Baru Island, near Cartagena, with his wife, journalist Claudia Aguilera, when two men got off a jet ski and shot him, Paraguay’s Interior Minister Federico Gonzalez told CNN on Tuesday.
Newlyweds and expecting a child
Marcelo Pecci had married journalist Claudia Aguilera just a few days ago: the wedding took place on April 30, according to information she shared on her social networks.
Shortly before the news of his death, Aguilera had shared on Instagram that they were going to be parents. The message, which accompanied a photo with baby shoes in the foreground and them hugging in the background, read: “The best wedding gift is…life bringing you closer to the most beautiful testimony of love.”
A promoter who “started from the bottom”
“Marcelo is a very old civil servant. He started as a typist, he started from the bottom, generationally he was in a consolidated career,” said Paraguay’s Attorney General, Sandra Quiñonez, who added that his death “will not be in vain” and in his name will advance “with more force against criminal structures”.
My deep regret for the serious crime suffered by my colleague and partner, Deputy Fiscal Agent of the Specialized Unit of Organized Crime, Marcelo Pecci, I wish to mourn the entire family of the Public Ministry and Paraguay. pic.twitter.com/kJ6LQUNq7V
— Sandra Quiñonez Astigarraga (@SandraQuinonezA) May 10, 2022
Pecci’s specialized anti-narcotics unit was created in 2007 in Paraguay to investigate drug-related crimes.
Among other things, its role is to dismantle organizations involved in international drug trafficking, selling drugs in urban areas, eliminating clandestine laboratories, destroying marijuana plantations and preventing the laundering of money and goods from the drug trade.
The unit, which Pecci coordinated nationally and internationally, said in a statement that Pecci was an “immaculate and highly qualified public servant”. She also highlighted her “courage and firmness” in the fight against drug trafficking.
internationally recognized
Marcelo Pecci was a member of the Ibero-American Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors, made up of prosecutors from 20 countries.
On their social media, the group described Pecci as “an exceptional promoter committed to his work as a service to Paraguayan society and as a way of contributing to a safer world”.
“Marcelo was an example for everyone and now he leaves us with an emptiness and enormous pain,” the group wrote.
The publication also highlights his “great work” as a contributor to the UN agency dedicated to the fight against drugs and crime.
The director general of the National Police of Colombia, Jorge Luis Vargas, said in an interview with Monumental that his death was “a blow to the global fight against international terrorism and drug trafficking worldwide”.
Cases with “important convictions”
Marcelo Pecci had been involved in cases with “important convictions” that could be behind what happened, according to local authorities.
In an interview with Rádio Monumental 1080 AM on Wednesday, Commissioner Gilberto Fleitas, commander of Paraguay’s National Police, said that local authorities assume that the alleged perpetrators of the crime began following him in Paraguay.
“We thought the tracking could have started here. It is thought, presumably, that the cases he was seeking, some of them with important convictions, some foreigners with important sentences in the country, could be the cause of this situation. We will only find out in time, who it could be, where it came from…”, said Fleitas.
Officials from Paraguay, Colombia and the United States are participating in the investigation of the crime. On Tuesday afternoon, Colombia’s attorney general, Francisco Barbosa, said he had sent “investigators with experience in homicides” to investigate what happened.
Pecci was also involved in the case of former football star Ronaldinho, who was arrested and investigated for using false documents to enter the country in 2020.
*With information from Sanie López-Garelli, Fernando Ramos and Gabriela Frías, from CNN in Spanish
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
