King of Gates arrested on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organization: "Ordered murders"

Ecuador storm: Gabriel Cortes, Barcelona star Guayaquil, was part of the Los Tigers group that also apparently murdered Olympic sprinter Alex Canyons.

Interior Minister: "Cortes provided and received information regarding assassinations"

Walla!

sport

23/04/2022

Saturday, April 23, 2022, 3:40 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

A major storm has been raging in the last two days in Ecuadorian football following the arrest of Gabriel Cortes, the king of league goals and the leading star of Barcelona Guayaquil.

The 26-year-old footballer was arrested along with 17 other people during a police operation against a murderous gang called Los Tigrons.

Suspicions: Murder, ordering murders, drug trafficking, terrorism and illegal arms trafficking.

One of the gang-linked murders is that of Alex Canyons, the best sprinter in Ecuador's history, who won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships, competed in the Olympic final in the 200-meter dash at the 2012 London Olympics and held national records.

Canyons was shot dead outside a shopping center in Guayaquil exactly six months ago along with another friend, and is also suspected to have been part of Los Tigers.

Good to know (promoted)

The solution to knee pain is closer than ever - thanks to technology in the shoe

Served on behalf of Apostrophe Therapy

A serial complication, but no one expected such a story.

Gabriel Corts (Photo: GettyImages, DOLORES OCHOA)

At first it was not clear Cortes' involvement in the organization and the explanation was that he was only brought in for questioning, but Interior Minister Patricio Cario left no room for doubt when he announced: "Among the detainees is a well-known sportsman in our country. And received information about the people the assassins need to kill. "

48 hours before the arrest, Cortes still had time to complete 90 minutes in his team's league game.

The player, who like many in South America is known as "El Loco" (the crazy one), is the king of league goals this season with seven conquests in nine rounds.

His tendency to get involved was well-known: in Independiente del Valla suspended him for insulting Kwon, the Brazilian botafogo was thrown out after documenting himself drinking alcohol with friends (and another praising rival Flamengo in the video), and in the first team call he fled the camp for a night out.

His murder six months ago shocked Ecuador.

Alex Canyons (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Steele)

The arrests in the current raid were made after a four-month investigation during which Ecuador's national police gathered a lot of information against the criminal gang and linked it to the Oliver Sinistra front - a group of opponents of Colombia's revolutionary armed forces operating near the Ecuadorian border.

The same group is accused of kidnapping and murdering three journalists in 2018.

Cortes, meanwhile, was brought before a judge and his detention was extended like the other suspects in the organization, including three police officers.

• sport

• Trash talk

Tags

• Ecuador

• murder