Overview

• Colombian authorities arrested four suspects in separate raids in Bogota, Medellin, Santa Marta and Arjona on June 23 in connection with the slaying of Alessandro Coatti.
• Police traced a tip linked to the 50 million peso reward offered by Santa Marta’s mayor to a blood-stained abandoned house where evidence tied the suspects to the crime.
• Coatti, 42, vanished on April 5 after being enticed via an LGBTQ dating app and his dismembered remains surfaced at multiple sites around Santa Marta.
• Investigators collected biological traces and reviewed security camera footage to build a case against the suspects.
• Coatti had served as a science policy officer at Britain’s Royal Society of Biology before conducting research in Colombia, and authorities are probing possible ties to the 'Conquistadors of the Sierra Nevada' paramilitary gang.