After the operation in which alias Bendito Menor, the main urban leader of the Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra (ACS) -executed in the early hours of September 4 in La Guajira-, there is already a new name among the high-value targets of that criminal structure that President Abelardo De La Espriella ordered to locate.
Since last Wednesday, August 26, the president signed the extraditions to the United States of several leaders of criminal organizations, including Fredy Castillo Carrillo, alias ‘Pinocho’, the alleged boss of ‘Bendito Menor’; and his brother, Carmen Evelio Castillo Carrillo, alias ‘Muñeca’.
The record and strategy
Alias Pinocho, also known as ‘Liar’ or ‘Cattleman’, has been prosecuted for his criminal link with the gang ‘Los Pachencas’ or (ACS), with criminal influence in Magdalena and La Guajira.
According to the investigation against him, he has played the role of leader and financier, giving orders and coordinating activities related to drug trafficking, arms trafficking, homicides, and extortions. At that time, informants say, ‘Bendito Menor’ was one of his trusted bodyguards.
He is also accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of social leader Alejandro Llinás Suárez that occurred on April 23, 2020, at the Pura Natura farm, located in the Calabazo Alto hamlet of the Guachaca district, Santa Marta (Magdalena).
‘Pinocho’ was linked to the paramilitary environment of Hernán Giraldo and drug trafficking, and was extradited to the United States. In 2011, he returned to Colombia and joined the Justice and Peace process. After he began to be investigated for crimes as leader of ‘Los Pachencas’, he went to live in Spain.
From there, the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO interviewed him and asked about his record.
Fugitive and filing lawsuits
Since then, he claimed to be subject to protection measures, social leader and victim of the conflict, and said he moved to Spain with his wife to start a company exporting Spanish marble and ceramics to Colombia and Mexico.
On May 24, 2021, the First Municipal Criminal Court of Guarantee Control of Cúcuta issued an arrest warrant against Castillo. The process was related to aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime and aggravated homicide against environmental leader Alejandro Llinás Suárez.
And on January 19, 2022, alias Pinocho was captured in the exclusive Brunete neighborhood in Madrid, Spain, and sent to Colombia to face his trial.
However, on June 29, 2023, a guarantee judge revoked his preventive detention, granting him freedom. And although the measure was revoked, ‘Pinocho’ was already a fugitive.
From the shadows, he has been filing lawsuits against the National Protection Unit (UNP) and the Police, claiming to be subject to protection measures and an informant for the authorities, using that claim to defend himself in his cases.
‘Total peace’ and rewards
At the same time, then-president Gustavo Petro appointed ‘Pinocho’ – through resolution 335 of 2025 – as representative of the ACS in a dialogue table.
The Investigative Unit of ELTIEMPO investigated and established that, fugitive and with an extradition request signed by a Texas court, ‘Pinocho’ has been filing lawsuits against the Police and even the National Protection Unit (UNP).
In one of those actions, he requested certification that he has received rewards as an informant.
“He requested that his fundamental right to due administrative process, petition, and access to justice be protected and consequently ordered the National Police to respond to his request and issue a certification of reward payment/receipt in his favor, stating that on the dates “12/10/2020 and 08/08/2025, reward payments were ordered in the name of Mr. Fredy Castillo Carrillo, specifying the date, document number, and amount, without revealing sources, methodology, and operations,” reads the lawsuit that was denied to him at the end of 2025.
Other leaders in the crosshairs
The government of Abelardo De La Espriella also announced that there are intelligence operations to locate other leaders of different criminal organizations in Colombia.
From the FARC dissidents appear ‘Iván Mordisco’, ‘Jhon Mechas’, ‘Calarcá’ and ‘Allende’.
And in the ELN, ‘Gabino’, ‘Antonio García’, ‘Pablo Beltrán’, ‘Pablito’, ‘Pirri’, ‘Martha’ or the ‘Grandmother’, ‘Carlos el Puerco’ and the ‘Rolo’ or ‘Julián’. Added to them is ‘Chiquito Malo’, identified as the top boss of the ‘Gulf Clan’.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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