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PNP Arrests Alleged Hitman in SJL Bus Shooting Tied to Transport Extortion

Police built the case using video analysis with communications data to pursue links to an extortion network.

Overview

  • Juan Carlos Ramírez, 23, known as “Juanca,” was detained under a judicial preliminary detention order as the suspected gunman in the October attack on a Santa Catalina bus in San Juan de Lurigancho.
  • Investigators report the shooting wounded driver Gustavo Álvarez and was meant to pressure the company to pay protection money.
  • CCTV reconstruction, the tracing of the taxi used after the attack, and lifted communications secrecy led to his identification, aided by statements from the taxi driver.
  • Authorities say he was contracted to act for the group “Los Injertos del Cono Este,” not as a formal member, and during the arrest police seized drugs and ammunition while noting prior robbery and drug-trafficking convictions from 2018 to 2022.
  • In a separate case in Piura, officers detained a suspect linked to the sicariato killing of Aderly Zapata Rufino, with about five participants reported and the person held as the Ministerio Público advances the investigation.