THIS was the dramatic moment a man was arrested after allegedly ordering the brutal torture and murder of three women.
Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano, 20, was taken into custody after going on the run following the live-streamed murder of three women in Buenos Aires.
APMurder suspect Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano was arrested in Peru[/caption]
X/@atoBullrich/statusHe is the alleged mastermind behind three savage murders of women in Buenos Aires[/caption]
Lara Gutierrez, 15, Brenda Del Castillo, 20, and Morena Verdi, 21, were subjected to what police described as “sadistic torture” after they unknowingly got into a car belonging to a violent drug cartel.
Victoriano managed to escape Argentina by crossing the border into Peru before police caught up with him.
The video footage shows him being hauled out of the back of a lorry where he had been hiding.
The truck was caught up in a road blockade organised by protesting local fishermen on the Pan-American Highway, south of Lima.
Peruvian police released footage of an officer ordering Victoriano to tell them his name and nationality.
Victoriano is also known as ‘Pequeno J’ or ‘Little J’ in English.
The baby-faced alleged narco’s arrest came just hours after Matias Agustin Ozorio – Victoriano’s alleged right hand man – was also captured by police in Lima.
Patricia Bullrich, Argentina‘s Minister of National Security, reacted to the news on social media.
“I want to congratulate Peru‘s National Police for the great work they’ve done and their cooperation in the capture of the two fugitives for the triple murders,” she wrote.
“Anti-drugs officers held ‘Little J’ in Pucusana, showing that when working decisively and in coordination, criminals have nowhere to hide.”
Her message was posted alongside an arrest photo of Victoriano, where he was appearing to smirk while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
Bullrich finished her message with “you reap what you sow”.
Investigators believe the women were tricked into going to a Buenos Aires home under the impression they were being paid around $300 to attend a party.
Buenos Aires security minister Javier Alonso said the girls were “last seen getting into a vehicle voluntarily because they had been invited to an event, not knowing they were falling into a trap set for them by an international drug trafficking gang”.
The three girls were taken to the property which is now being called the “House of Horrors”, where they were brutally raped, tortured and murdered.
The savage September 19 murders were live-streamed onto a private Instagram group, where officials believe around 45 people watched.
C5NThe three women were last seen getting into the back of a pickup truck[/caption]
C5NThey had no idea they were being taken to their death[/caption]
FacebookBrenda del Castillo and Morena Verdi were murdered in the ‘House of Horrors’[/caption]
The bodies of the three women were found on September 24, buried in the garden of the Florencio Varela ‘House of Horrors’.
Two women were caught cleaning the house with bleach when it was raided by police.
Lara is said to have had all five fingers on her left hand amputated before her captors ended her life.
Brenda had a skull fracture and her stomach had been cut open after she was killed.
Morena is understood to have asphyxiated with a plastic bag found pulled over her head.
Haunting video footage shows the trio as they get into a stranger’s truck on a roundabout near their homes, just 20 minutes away from where their murders took place.
Lara GutierrezSocial Media
Brenda del CastilloSocial Media
Morena VerdiSocial Media
When the first reports surfaced, identifying Victoriano as the alleged mastermind behind the brutal crimes, Alonso said police “feared he had fled”.
“The entire murder and torture session was broadcast live on social media and was apparently viewed by 45 people who follow the Instagram account,” he said.
Referring to the live-streaming of the murders, he said it was “relevant” as the gang had allegedly “hatched a plan to kill them”.
“It is relevant to the motive of for the murders, which is that the leader of the gang is saying: ‘This is what happens to you if you steal drugs from me’.
“The drug trafficking organisation has its operational command in Buenos Aires and they had chosen this house to carry out the murders.”
Alonso added that four people have so far been arrested and that the “investigation to apprehend the intellectual and material authors [of the video] is very advanced”.
The regional minister went on to say the murders were “a narco act of revenge”.
Zenon Loayza, the Peruvian anti-drugs police chief, announced the arrest of the baby-faced alleged narco and his suspected accomplice.
“The motive for the assassination of the three women was the theft of approximately three kilos of cocaine one of them had allegedly taken from the leader of the organisation,” he said.
Buenos Aires prosecutors have described the crimes, saying: “This is the most sordid and horrifying case we have ever had to deal with”.
Victoriano and Ozorio are now facing extradition to Argentina.
Speaking to journalists at his arrest, Victoriano – the son of a murdered drug trafficker – denied all involvement.
“I haven’t killed anyone,” he said.
“The guilty person has to be found – I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
A spokesperson for Peru’s National Police said: “In a swift and simultaneous operation, agents from the Anti-Drug Directorate, in coordination with Interpol Argentina, arrested alias ‘Little J’ and Matias Agustin Ozorio, both fugitives from Argentina”.
“Red notices [were] issued [for both fugitives] by Interpol … implicated in a triple murder in Buenos Aires,” they said.
“The case involves three young women murdered in violent circumstances.
“Tony Valverde, a Peruvian citizen, is believed to be linked to international drug trafficking networks and is identified as the alleged mastermind behind the crime,” they continued.
“More than half a dozen other suspects have already been held over the triple murders in Argentina.”