It's Tuesday and it's already night.
Agents from the Spanish Civil Guard and the Local Police of Valencia find an abandoned car in a parking lot of some residential towers in a rural area, with little traffic, called El Saler.
Inside there are three corpses piled up: they have been shot to death.
The dead were Colombian nationals, and the Spanish authorities refuse to provide their names.
But the media in the South American country have been able to identify one: Roberto Vega Daza, the leader of a clan that has been committing crimes in the Colombian Caribbean for years.
On the other side of the pond, almost at the same time as the massacre, a man dressed entirely in black approaches a house in Barranquilla.
He pulls out a can of spray paint and, in big red letters, writes on the doorway: “
Game over
Los Vega.”
That night there is a party.
In an upper-class neighborhood, Villa Campestre, the neighbors light up the sky with a shower of fireworks.
They celebrate, according to several sources, the death of the last Vega Daza left alive.
Roberto Vega Daza, 33, left Colombia months ago fleeing a criminal vendetta, Diógenes Rosero, director of the Foro Costa Atlántica, an organization that promotes democracy in the Caribbean region of the country, explains to this newspaper.
The revenge, says Rosero, dates back to an afternoon in October 2022. More specifically to a party.
The origin of the vendetta
It is Sunday.
Jonathan Ospino, son of a boss of a local gang known as Los Costeños, celebrates his 21st birthday. He wears a white t-shirt and black pants: the clothes for an unforgettable day.
The El Mediterrané estate, north of Barranquilla, is filled with important people.
There are the bosses of several drug trafficking groups, businessmen from the region and even several public officials, according to two sources who prefer to remain anonymous for their safety.
And there is Roberto Vega Daza, about to change his life.
The party does not go as planned.
At seven in the morning, after hours of vallenato music and alcohol, a shootout breaks out.
Images published on social networks show a scene of absolute chaos.
Attendees hide behind sound systems, white chairs are thrown everywhere, a symphony of bullets fills the air.
It is not known exactly why the fight started, but when it ends three people have died: an assistant, a Vega Daza bodyguard, and the birthday boy.
The person accused of that third death is Roberto Vega Daza.
Experts from the Civil Guard investigate the scene of the events in El Saler (Valencia), early Wednesday morning. Kai Forsterling (EFE)
The alleged murderer escapes in a white Toyota truck.
Ospino's relatives fill the vehicle with shots;
is armored, Vega Daza survives.
The Police arrest him hours later, but the authorities release him shortly after.
Faced with what they feel is a lack of justice, Los Costeños decide to take revenge.
They put a price on his head and those of his relatives - $500,000, according to several sources.
The Vega Daza have to pay.
The Vega Daza massacre
That revenge comes eight months later, on June 29, 2023. The Vega Daza know that they are in danger.
Someone in Barranquilla has been posting posters with their photos and the legend: “The most wanted, criminal gang.”
According to a police report, that day Roberto, his father Rafael 'Kike' Vega Cuello, and his brothers Ronald and Ray were leaving their house.
Suddenly, some men who had climbed onto the walls and roof of the house opened fire on him.
They even throw a grenade at them.
The father and two brothers die.
Roberto is wounded in the left leg, but manages to escape again.
He is taken to a nearby clinic.
Los Costeños take responsibility for the crime in a video published on social networks.
“This action was a consequence of a society tired of the abuses caused by the Vega clan,” explain three hooded men, dressed completely in black.
“They dedicated themselves to stealing property, money, drugs and extorting people, who got tired and joined together to put an end to those people,” they continue.
Finally, they leave a message for Roberto's loved ones: "Let them be clear that all of his collaborators are on the same path, and everyone who wants to continue by Roberto Vega's side."
😱 HOODED GUYS ANNOUNCE THAT NOW THEY ARE GOING FOR THE COLLABORATORS OF THE VEGA-DAZA CLAN.
Hooded men warned that several businessmen from Barranquilla would be collaborators of the Vega-Daza, murdered in Villa Campestre and that they will now suffer the same fate as their partners.
pic.twitter.com/SV2MOJWl8C
— Primero Barranquilla (@primeronoticiaa) July 4, 2023
Vega Daza left Colombia shortly after.
Some sources placed it in Venezuela, others in Mexico.
Somehow he ended up in Spain, precisely in Valencia, one of the main gateways for cocaine into the country, where his life was taken.
Spanish authorities have not yet determined the motive behind the crime.
Nobody has been arrested.
His Colombian enemies finally found him, sources who know the criminal world of Barranquilla assure this newspaper.
Although the Vega Daza have been murdered, for these sources it is difficult to think that the revenge is over.
Roberto is survived by his wife and his children, as well as a large family in a city that experiences permanent violence.
Throughout their 25 active years, the Vega Daza - of Guajiro descent - have had links with paramilitary groups, the Costa Cartel - which ruled the Caribbean during the eighties and nineties - and have waged wars with numerous structures. criminals.
More recently, they had disputes with Los Costeños and the largest drug trafficking gang in Colombia, the Clan del Golfo, among others.
With or without those close to the Vega Daza, the violence will not stop in Barranquilla.
The city, of almost three million inhabitants, is currently experiencing an urban war between several gangs that leaves a trail of death: there were 733 homicides in 2023. Luis Trejos, professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Norte, explained to this in January newspaper that a criminal competition has taken over the south of the city.
“It is a war between different gangs for control of as much territory as possible.
This, in order to obtain income through extortion and micro-trafficking, among other things.”
The main actors are the Clan del Golfo, Los Rastrojos Costeños, Los Pepes and, precisely, Los Costeños.
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