Venezuelan narco named 'Taliban' is dumped alive in the Caribbean Sea
Fugitive drug lord ‘Taliban’ who stole cartel’s 450lb cocaine shipment is tossed ALIVE into ocean with an anchor tied to his waist
- Reinaldo Fuentes was thrown off a raft into the Caribbean Sea
- Fuentes was a Venezuelan drug trafficker who was accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of cocaine
- He was kidnapped on July 17 and dumped to die the same day in apparent retribution for the theft
This is the moment a fugitive Venezuelan drug trafficker known as Taliban is dumped alive in the ocean with his hands zip-tied and an anchor around his waist in revenge for stealing 450 pounds of cocaine – and cash – from a cartel.
Reinaldo Fuentes, 68, is seen bound and gagged with blood stains on the back of his head before his killers struggle to heave him – and the anchor – over the side of a boat into the Caribbean Sea near Martinique.
The footage, shared to social media, shows Fuentes staring at the person recording the video. He is then dumped overboard and left to drown.
None of his kidnappers are identified but one is heard in the background of the video saying ‘make sure none of our faces can be seen’ and another later said ‘he has no way to save himself’.
In an elaborate – and poorly thought out – ruse, Fuentes, a middleman for the Venezuelan Clan del Cartel, earlier had dumped a shipment of narcotics worth $10 million at sea and fabricated a fake coast guard pursuit to explain not bringing the drugs back to his bosses and kept the cash.
Reinaldo Fuentes, a Venezuelan drug trafficker, lies flat inside a raft moments before he was tossed in the Caribbean Sea near Martinique in July
Fuentes is lifted from the raft moments before he was tossed in to the Caribbean Sea after being accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of cocaine
He then went back out on the water to collect the cocaine, repackaged it and took it to another Caribbean island.
But the scheme went awry when his henchmen snitched, leading to his watery demise on July 17 – the day he was invited to a cartel meeting.
Veteran journalism Rafael Tolentino revealed Monday on ‘Esto No Es Radio,’ a daily morning show in the Dominican Republic, that Fuentes obtained a fake national identification document that allowed him to live under the name of Miguel Fulcar in the Dominican Republic, making it impossible for him to be detected by authorities.
Fuentes was reportedly dating a prominent lawyer, caring for her daughter, in the Dominican city of Bonao.
He was a native of Sucre, Venezuela, and had three children from a prior relationship in Venezuela.
Fuentes allegedly controlled drug dealing in the Bonao neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where he picked up the ‘Taliban’ nickname due to illicit dealings with Middle Eastern drug traffickers.
Two members of his organization were previously killed in a shootout with the police in Buenos Aires. An investigation led cops to a home were a cache of weapons were recovered from a Bonao home. The weapons reportedly belonged to Fuentes.
Sources told Tolentino Fuentes entered the country July 14 and was there for two days before leaving.
Sources told Tolentino that Fuentes was murdered because he had been involved with stealing a multi-million-dollar cocaine shipment destined for Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands.
Fuentes accepted money for 200 kilos of cocaine and then stole the drugs in an elaborate plot. But, his fellow drug traffickers ratted him out
Fuentes was living in Venezuela, but got fake identification that let him live in the Dominican Republic after the alleged theft
Fuentes had his hands bound and had an anchor tied to his body as he was dumped into the sea
He was kidnapped on July 17 and the same day was taken out to the Caribbean sea
‘He still doesn’t have a way to free himself,’ one of the men in the background could be heard saying before the video comes to an end
Fuentes left his Dominican home and was lured to a cartel meeting at an unknown location on July 17. That is when he was kidnapped and dumped at sea later in the day.
In the video, a gang member ensured that the executioners’ faces were not shown on film.
Two men then struggled to lift Fuentes off the raft because he had an anchor wrapped around his body to prevent him from saving himself. They subsequently dump him headfirst into the sea.
The video ends with a distant image of Fuentes floating in the water with no effort to save him.
It’s unclear if authorities have made any arrests in the case although the Dominican Republic military said that the incident did not take place in its waters.
The video ends with a distant image of Fuentes floating in the water with no effort to save him
It’s also unknown how long Fuentes has been linked to the Clan del Cartel, aka Gulf Cartel, considered the oldest active criminal organization in Mexico.
The network started off by smuggling alcohol into the United States during the Prohibition Era. Once it came to an end, the organization turned to other illicit activities like gambling, prostitution rings and smuggling other goods.
It was not until the 1980 that the Gulf Cartel got itself immersed into the drug trade, tapping into the marijuana and heroin market.
Its leader Juan García eventually entered an agreement with the once-powerful Colombian Cali Cartel to set up drug trafficking routes to the United States due to its proximity to the border – the Gulf Cartel is based out of the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
García made a deal with Cali Cartel leaders, the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, to manage cartel shipment along the Mexico-United States border in return for 50 percent of the profit.
Extraditions and killings of Gulf Cartel leaders diminished the organization’s stronghold in the drug trafficking business.
Cartel cells like the Scorpions, Cyclones, Metros, Panthers and Rojos went their own ways and set up operations in different parts of Tamaulipas.
The organization has operations throughout Latin America and has had leaders from various countries.
In August, former head Dairo Antonio Usuga David, aka Otoneil, was sentenced to 45 years in American prison for his role running the drug trafficking operation. He was also ordered to forfeit $216 million.
It’s unclear who the current leader is, as fragmentation among the gang has made identifying a central leader difficult, according to InsightCrime.
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