Jenss Lara Tantaquilla, the businessman who was kidnapped by the criminal organization ‘The Octopuses‘During the early hours of August 30 in Trujillo, he declared to the Prosecutor’s Office that he was unaware that his four companions had been murdered while he remained in captivity. According to his testimony, he only learned about the crime from his family after being released and transferred to his home.
The digital media Infobae published this story, which is part of the testimonial statement given before the Specialized Corporate Provincial Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime of La Libertad, within the framework of the investigation into the kidnapping of the businessman and the murder of his companions.
According to her statement, on the night of Saturday, August 30, Lara went out with her brother to a party in the La Encalada del Golf sector, in Trujillo. Later he moved with a group of friends to other nightclubs.
In the vehicle were Luis Alberto Rojas Ramos de Rosas, Christopher Eduardo García Álvarez, Nadia Edith Urtecho Rodríguez and Farhad Andrea Monzón Lingánpeople with whom he had a friendship of between one and three years, according to what he declared. All of them were shot dead.
Luis Rojas was next to Jenss Lara during the bloody kidnapping. Photo: Fourth power
However, the mining businessman only learned of the death of those close to him when he returned to his home.
According to his testimony, until that moment he did not know that the four had been murdered during the intervention of the criminals. His family told him the news once he arrived home.
“(…) we have come to the house, there they give me the news that they have killed everyone who has been with you, and for me it was very painful news, because the people who were there were very close that I esteemed and they esteemed me, they were not people that I met for a week, a month, we had known each other for years, well there it was, I arrived at my house, where my family and many friends were waiting for me, that’s all I have to say, that is the story,” he pointed out.
Lara told the Prosecutor’s Office that that morning after his kidnapping he fell asleep inside the vehicle because he had consumed high doses of alcohol. He said he woke up when he heard Nadia Urtecho’s screams, when a group of men dressed in police uniforms intercepted the truck.
For this reason, he explained, he got out of the vehicle without resisting. However, when he realized that they were criminals, he tried to struggle and was hit in the face.
Approximately 20 minutes later, according to their own calculation, the kidnappers arrived at a building. Lara said he was forced down and dragged down some stairs to a room.
During that time of confinement, the criminals did not inform him of the multiple murder.
And they did communicate with the businessman’s family and to demand payment of two million dollars for his freedom. Lara stated that this amount was impossible for his relatives to raise.
Given the initial refusal, the kidnappers established a deadline to make the payment and threatened to mutilate his fingers. They even forced him to record videos addressed to his family to prove that he was still alive.
The Prosecutor’s Office has presented part of these audiovisual records during the judicial investigation of the case. Furthermore, the Public Ministry maintains that at least 20 people participated in the planning and execution of the kidnapping and murder of the four companions.
Lara said that he remained for several hours in a small yellow room, where there was an inflatable mattress, a bucket and two oxygen canisters.
After several negotiations, the kidnappers finally told him that he would be released.
Videos sent as proof of Jenss Lara’s life to ask his relatives for 2 million soles. The Prosecutor’s Office presented them at the hearing requesting preventive detention against “Jhonsson Pulpo.” (Justice TV)
Subsequently, it was placed in the trunk of a vehicle and taken to another point. There he was abandoned on the public road. Once he was alone, Lara managed to remove the blindfold and handcuffs.
“My father came to pick me up, my cousins came to pick me up, my brother,” he told the Prosecutor’s Office.
The tax investigation seeks to determine the specific participation of those involved in the kidnapping of Lara and the murder of her four companions. The Public Ministry requested 36 months of preventive detention for 13 investigated, including Jhonsson Smith Cruz Torres, alias “Jhonsson Pulpo.”
