Second-in-command of Clan del Golfo gang found dead -Colombian police

The police will investigate his death, Cortes added, but security and intelligence sources told Reuters Giraldo appears to have been killed as part of an internal dispute. The Clan is holding a ceasefire with the government of President Gustavo Petro, who has pledged to seek peace or surrender deals with armed groups to bring "total peace" to Colombia.

Colombian police said on Wednesday they have found the body of Wilmer Antonio Giraldo Quiroz, the second-in-command of the Clan del Golfo crime gang. The body was confirmed as Giraldo's using biometric data and was found near the municipality of Dabeiba, in Antioquia province, the police said in a video.

Giraldo, best known by his alias Siopas, belonged to the Clan, also called the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces, for 12 years, Colonel Oscar Hernan Cortes said, and before that to a unit of the now-demobilized FARC rebels. The police will investigate his death, Cortes added, but security and intelligence sources told Reuters Giraldo appears to have been killed as part of an internal dispute.

The Clan is holding a ceasefire with the government of President Gustavo Petro, who has pledged to seek peace or surrender deals with armed groups to bring "total peace" to Colombia. Giraldo opposed talks with the government, which hopes to trade benefits like reduced sentences for disarmament of criminal groups, the sources said.

The Clan's former leader Otoniel, captured in October 2021, pleaded guilty in January to U.S. drug trafficking charges.