When he was trying to flee to Lima (Peru), Jhersson Leonardo Contreras Ramírez, alias Bam Bam, one of those involved in the murder of rice businessman Gustavo Aponte Fonnegra, was captured at El Dorado airport in Bogotá.
As revealed by EL TIEMPO, the 31-year-old man was carrying a fake passport with which he intended to evade the authorities and is one of the members of the criminal gang ‘los Gladiadores’, who planned Aponte’s murder through a WhatsApp group with the same name.
The collection office
According to the case file in possession of EL TIEMPO, ‘Bam Bam’ is one of the individuals appearing in chats sharing information about surveillance on the real target of the criminal gang: a businessman in the gold sector who frequented the same gym as Aponte.
In the extractions of communications from ‘los Gladiadores’, photos are seen of the area where the gold sector businessman had his office, surveillance near the Andino shopping center and even on the outskirts of Bogotá.
Judicial sources told EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit that Jhersson Leonardo Contreras Ramírez would be a member of a collection office in northern Bogotá, specifically in the Verbenal neighborhood.
The record
EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established that Contreras Ramírez is a well-known figure to the justice system due to his criminal record.
According to records held by this newspaper, in September 2015 ‘Bam Bam’ was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison for the crime of qualified and aggravated theft.
Although Contreras’s defense tried to appeal the sentence, it was confirmed in April 2016.
In that same process, another individual identified as Diego Fernando Santos, who was also convicted, appears.
EL TIEMPO also had access to a citation for carrying weapons imposed on Contreras Ramírez. This case dates back to February 2023 when on 196th Street with 16th Avenue in Bogotá, ‘Bam Bam’ was found with a bladed weapon.
‘Bam Bam’s strategy
In the Prosecutor’s files for Aponte’s murder, it is also noted that the cell phone line used by ‘Bam Bam’ had no activity before the crime (February 11, 2026) and that a day later the phone’s cells showed him near the municipality of Santa María, in the department of Boyacá.
For investigators, it is clear that this was a strategy to avoid tracing his prior activity, but everything was recorded in the chats.
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“He connected through a WiFi network to give instructions to the hitmen and send photos of the surveillance of his target so that no trace remained on the mobile network operator,” a knowledgeable source told EL TIEMPO.
And added that it is striking that ‘Bam Bam’s cell phone appeared a day after Aponte’s murder in Boyacá, very close to where the driver of the gray Spark car was killed, in which the hitman stored his belongings before killing the rice businessman. For this reason, it is being verified if he was one of those who participated in that other crime.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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