Since 2013, the United States implemented the rewards program for transnational criminals. This is how they search for the murderers of Fernando Villavicencio.
As of September 28, 2023, the United States (US) is offering $6 million for information on the masterminds or organized crime groups related to the murder of Fernando Villavicencio.
Through the State Department, the US has two reward programs to search for criminals around the world.
The first program has to do with drug traffickers. In this initiative, the United States has encrypted rewards to capture famous criminals such as Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán or Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, leaders of the Mexican cartels in Sinaloa and Jalisco.
Additionally, since 2013, the United States implemented the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. This initiative seeks to bring to justice the main fugitives operating outside the United States.
According to State Department records, 50 bounties are currently in effect worldwide. These are related to 46 cases because there are some processes – such as the one in Villavicencio – that have two rewards.
In each case, the Secretary of State on duty – currently, Antony Blinken – can offer up to USD 25 million for each of the fugitives.
Of the 50 rewards that are public at this time, 25 are for USD 5 million. In addition, there are six for USD 10 million and another 12 for USD 1 million.
Rewards with unknowns
Of the 46 transnational crime reward cases that the United States currently maintains, 40 target criminals identified for different crimes.
There is, for example, the case of the Xaysavang Network, originally from Laos and dedicated to wildlife trafficking. In this process, the United States offers USD 10,000 for data that serves to completely dismantle this criminal organization.
Regarding Villavicencio, however, the US authorities invested USD 6 million to search for the still unidentified authors and co-conspirators.
This has already happened in four other cases. For example, this same figure was used to search for the intellectual authors of the murder of Marcelo Pecci, a Paraguayan prosecutor who was killed in Colombia, in 2022.
As in the Villavicencio case, almost immediately, Colombian authorities captured and sentenced the material authors of Pecci’s crime. But the perpetrators of the crime have not yet been found.
This same mechanism was also implemented in the cases of three transnational organizations dedicated to cybercrime. In each, the United States implemented two rewards to search for the leaders and partners of each group.
In addition, there is a case that is also similar to that of Villavicencio. In October 2020, the US placed a $1 million reward to search for José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández, a high-ranking member of the Mexican Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.
Villarreal is charged in the United States for his role in directing a hitman hit on a Mexican defense attorney in the suburb of Southlake, Texas, in 2013.
USD 135 million paid
According to official data from the United States, USD 135 million has been paid among reward programs for drug traffickers and transnational criminals. With the information collected, 75 criminals have been captured.
Currently, the 50 transnational organized crime rewards offered total USD 208.5 million.
Among the criminals that the US is looking for, through this program, 14 refer to cybercrimes. There are also hitmen, animal traffickers and cigarette traffickers.
As for nationalities, on the other hand, seven of the fugitives are Chinese and six Russians.
In addition, there are five Venezuelans. These are current and former ‘Chavista’ officials accused of money laundering and evading US sanctions against the South American nation.
Fausto Salinas, commander of the Ecuadorian Police, announced that in the coming days, President Guillermo Lasso will officially present the Ecuador Rewards Plan, which would be the Ecuadorian chapter of the US initiative.
Although it has not yet been officially launched, the program is already active through the 131 telephone line. In this issue you can already provide information about the murder of Villavicencio.
