Sebastien Marcet, a drug trafficker accused of killing Colombia’s Prosecutor Marcelo Pecchi, hides a Uruguayan passport

The times when uruguayans needed to go to digital platforms to get doses of Melodrama about drugsDrugs and the organized mafia. Identified as a “dangerous, heavy drug dealer,” 32-year-old Uruguayan Sebastien Marcet is in the news almost daily in Uruguay and shakes up society with a record linking him to the first Uruguayan cartel and other crimes committed beyond borders. Among these, Marset emerges as the alleged leader of a drug-trafficking ring in Paraguay and his name appears to be linked to the murder of Prosecutor Marcelo Picciwhich occurred in Colombia in May 2022.

The Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, without hesitation, indicated that he was the author of that murder, V.I Tweet posted On August 12 of last year. “The investigation into the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecchi committed on Colombian territory by the Uruguayan drug trafficker Marcette shows that drug trafficking is no longer a bilateral Colombian-American problem and is today an American and global problem,” Pietro writes.

While Colombia tries to identify the masterminds responsible for this crime, Paraguay follows clues that may lead to the whereabouts of Marset, a fugitive from justice after obtaining his Uruguayan passport in a Dubai prison. In parallel, the Uruguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation to determine how Marast could have obtained the passport in those circumstances. In August, this case will be investigated by the heads of the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, as well as 11 other people involved in issuing the document.

“I don’t know what the suspicion is, the legislation is very clear,” Uruguayan Interior Minister Luis Heber told the press when asked in August 2022 about the passport in question. According to official information, Marst treated her while he was imprisoned in the Arab emirate, where he was arrested in September 2021 for traveling with forged Paraguayan documents. The issuance process, which involved the participation of a number of officials and Marset’s lawyers’ offices in Uruguay, took place in accordance with current regulations, the authorities explained.

With his passport in hand, Marst regained his freedom in February 2022. So far, he managed to evade the international arrest warrant issued by Paraguay’s Interpol a month later, when his whereabouts were no longer known. Finding him does not seem an easy task, given the chameleon-like career of the Uruguay, who according to records moved into drug trafficking networks, but also into football, singing or show production, especially in Paraguay, where he moved after serving a prison sentence in Uruguay.

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In 2013, at the age of 21, Marcette was tried in Montevideo for three offenses related to drug trafficking. That year, the newspaper reported, he admitted to receiving 450 kilograms of marijuana that had been seized in Operation Wera. ladiaria, in coordination between Uruguay and Paraguay. He regained his freedom in 2018 and left the country, after he was tried without imprisonment for murder. He passed through Bolivia and ended up in Paraguay, where he appeared as a music producer and professional soccer player, activities he would use to launder money. In 2021, he left Paraguay and tried to reach Turkey, but ended up being detained in Dubai.

In the framework of the massive anti-drug operation In Ultranza Py, which was developed in Paraguay in February 2022, Marset is accused of being one of the leaders of the structure dedicated to smuggling cocaine by container from Paraguay to Europe. “We see him as a kind of manager of the (Paraná-Paraguay) waterway,” Marco Alcaraz, Paraguay’s chief anti-narcotics prosecutor, told the paper about Marcette. Nation. Of this operation, which was carried out, among others, by the prosecutor Pecci assassinated in Colombia, Marset is indicated as the organizer of the shipment of 16 tons of cocaine destined for European countries.

Political storm in Uruguay

In Uruguay, the red alert issued by Interpol against Marcette shook the political landscape. In March 2022, lawmakers from the opposition Broad Front (FA-center-left) requested information from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Foreign Relations about the process that ended with the passport being handed over to Marset. Following this request for reporting, in August 2022 a parliamentary grilling was conducted against the heads of those portfolios, which led to the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s decision to launch a criminal investigation.

According to what happened, in the first days of August, the General Prosecutor for Economic Crimes, Alejandro Machado, will summon the Secretary of State, Francisco Bustillo, and the Chief of the Interior, Luis A. Heber, to testify during the inquest.

To date, both pyramids have confirmed that the Marset passport issuance has been carried out in strict compliance with current legislation. During the interrogation, in August 2022, Heber indicated that the 2014 decree relating to the issuance of passports required only consideration of legal records and open criminal cases in Uruguay to grant them. “All of Mr. Marcette’s cases were filed, and closed, in 2020,” Heber noted, noting that the passport was processed at the end of 2021.

Without specifying the intention to hand over the document, Senator Mario Bergara (FIFA) considered that the authorities should have assumed their political responsibility instead of using administrative and bureaucratic “abstract arguments”. He emphasized: “This decree did not oblige to work as it was implemented and was not obligated to work at the times, forms and procedures chosen by the administration.”

In August, Attorney General Machado will summon the current Deputy Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, to testify, as well as the former Deputy Secretary of State, Carolina Ache, who resigned in December 2022 after the political upheaval that led to the handing over of the passport to Marst.

At the parliamentary questioning the previous August, Aceh stated that he did not know Marcette’s background. However, the publication of a conversation between her and Maciel showed that both were aware of her danger. We can find out what happened to this criminal who was arrested in Dubai because of a forged document. “It is a very dangerous and heavy drug,” said the message, reported by the newspaper. ladiaria Written by Maciel and addressed to Ashe. Sent a WhatsApp conversation about Marset in November 2021, when he didn’t have the passport he finally got it in January 2022.

Knowing about this exchange and other open questions, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is moving forward with the investigation. Meanwhile, concern is growing about cases of drug trafficking in Uruguay, which have been seen before from afar in bizarre soap operas.

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