Peru extradites ‘Pequeño J,’ key suspect in triple murder case, to Argentina

Peru has extradited the alleged mastermind behind a triple killing broadcast on social media in Buenos Aires last year, police said on Monday.

Peruvian national Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano, alias ‘Pequeño J,’ is accused of orchestrating the killings in Florencio Varela, on the southern outskirts of the capital, in a case authorities say is linked to drug-trafficking.

The 20-year-old suspect had been held in a Lima prison since October and is wanted by Argentina’s justice system to face trial.

The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutiérrez were found buried in the yard of a house in the area on September 24, five days after their disappearance.

Investigators say the victims were abducted on September 19, bound, beaten and tortured before being killed during a live broadcast on a closed social media group, in what local authorities believe was punishment for an alleged drug theft.

Peruvian authorities handed Valverde over to Interpol Argentina at Lima airport under heavy security for transfer to Buenos Aires.

“The extradition of ‘Pequeño J’ has already been carried out. He is now in the hands of Interpol Argentina,” Colonel Hans Ruiz, head of Interpol in Lima, who led the operation, told the AFP news agency.

He is expected to arrive late Monday at El Palomar airport in Buenos Aires, before being transferred to a Federal Police facility in the Villa Lugano neighbourhood, according to local media.

Valverde will be tried for “aggravated homicide,” according to Peru’s prosecutor’s office, which confirmed his extradition to face trial in Argentina.

He is due to be formally questioned on Tuesday by Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 2 in Morón, presided over by Judge Jorge Ernesto Rodríguez.

The killings triggered nationwide outrage in Argentina, with thousands of people joining protests to demand justice.

Valverde is also suspected of being part of an organised criminal structure linked to drug-trafficking, allegedly involved in recovering stolen drugs.

He was arrested on September 30 in the district of Pucusana, in southern Lima. His suspected Argentine accomplice, 28-year-old Matías Ozorio, was also arrested in Peru on the same day and later deported.

A further seven people have been arrested in Argentina in connection with the case.

Relatives of the three victims staged a protest on Monday ahead of Valverde’s arrival, gathering at a roundabout in La Tablada before marching to the federal court in Morón.

– TIMES/AFP/NA