The United States government announced on Thursday that they are offering a $5 million reward for information related to the sudden assassination of Paraguay organized crime prosecutor Marcelo Pecci.
Pecci, 45, was spending his honeymoon on the Colombian island of Barú, near the Caribbean city of Cartagena, when he was shot dead by unknown perpetrators on May 10. Now, the State Department is offering the reward to gather more information that could lead to more arrests and convictions related to Pecci’s death, according to Reuters.
“The assassination of prosecutor Pecci was a direct attack on the rule of law in Paraguay and the United States stands with the Paraguayan people and against those who seek to harm those who heroically work in public service,” Marc Ostfield, the U.S. ambassador to Paraguay, said.
Pecci was reportedly killed while he was at the beach, with his killer coming and going through the sea. Six co-conspirators have been identified to have been involved in the killing, and five of them were arrested as of writing this. Four of them have been given sentences of 23 years in prison for murder by a Colombian judge, while a fifth awaits trail, Al Jazeera reported.
The reward is being offered by the State Department as a way of finding more information related to the crime, and potentially finding more of the perpetrators of the assassination. It’s part of the State Department’s innovative Narcotics Rewards Program and Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, which has paid $155 million in rewards for the persecution of 75 transnational criminals since 1986, a State Department press release said.
Pecci was well-known for his involvement in the prosecution of organized crime, specializing in drug trafficking, money laundering, and the finances related to terrorism. He was one of the leaders of an operation that successfully seized properties bought through money laundering that led to the arrest of 30 people.
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