Hitmen and extortion on the rise [INFORME]

Hitmen killed a 26-year-old man in the Pimentel Chiclayo area, Lambayeque. The killers took advantage of the fact that their victim was sleeping at the door of his house to shoot him and shamelessly capture the brutal moment on video.

Last February in Lima, six members of a family were shot and killed by hired criminals in the San Miguel area. Two of the victims were minors.

Either in Lambaek or Lima, the hitmen in Peru seem to be on the rise. These cases, according to former Undersecretary of the Interior Ricardo Valdez, start out mostly with extortion and increase in number and brutality.

“Therefore, it does not surprise me that at this time on the northern coast of the country cases of extortion are repeated, but on the basis of greater violence, it is more violence that is documented, that is, the cases of criminals. They execute a person, film it on video to create a big situation of tension and a big situation. panic,” he says.

From January to February 2023, 44 hitman complaints were registered in Peru, exceeding the 23 cases that were committed during the same time period in 2022, representing an increase of about 50%, according to data from National Police of Peru.

According to Aldo Pecho, an anthropologist and citizen security expert, the increase in such cases is mainly due to the fact that crime uses two types of modalities to commit a crime without consequences.

“Firstly, the hiring of minors because they are not covered by the criminal code or there is no such strict sanction against them when they have not reached the age of majority. ” He says.

According to him Criminal Codea contract killer “is contract killing in exchange for economic reward or any other kind”, which can be punished by a minimum sentence of 25 to 35 years in prison and can go up to life imprisonment with aggravated circumstances.

Extortion and contract crimes, which, according to the colonel Victor Revoredohead of the homicide department Dirinkri They are performed mainly by foreign criminal organizations, which are mainly located in the following districts and regions.

“Places like San Juan de Lurigancho, in the regions of Tumbes, Piura, Trujillo, North, Little North, Huaral, Barranca, Supe, and that’s where they attract middle-class people who work in the markets. which are dedicated to the activities of medium-sized businesses,” he says.

According to former CEO National Police of Peru Eduardo Perez Rocha, but the main problem is that the investigations lack speed.

“Why do we now have assassins who are in the hands of public service And do they appear during the investigation stage, which starts at 9 months and can last up to 3 years? This is both a mistake and a serious problem, let’s put it this way, it needs to be solved, the speed of imposing sanctions,” he says.

The police learned that the organizers of these crimes could be paid from one thousand to two thousand soles for each murder, or free of charge if it controlled a specific area. According to experts, extortion and contract killings have ceased to be a criminal problem and have become a social problem that must be stopped immediately.