Warning this episode contained scenes that may be disturbing to some of our listeners. Beto Corral wasn't going to give up. He had tried time and time again. From exile, he obtained the court file of his father's murder case, which the prosecutor's office refused to hand over. It took him over twenty seven years, and what he found shocked him.
Upon reviewing the file, he realized that LUs Maria Bolella Maso had confessed to firing a fourth shot, which none of the witnesses heard, bet to ensure that it was her in collusion with criminals who arrived in the car who killed his father. In the same file, the prosecutor's office presented the conclusions of its investigations. There, the prosecutor states, and I quote, after reviewing and analyzing the proceedings carried out, we can observe the contradictions in this statement made by
LUs Maria Rolela Masso about the mysterious ford shot. Nevertheless, the prosecutor's office did not follow this lead. Despite the obvious contradictions in LUs Maria Orleda's statement, they left the file like that and suspended judicial activities to find the culprits. Just eight months after the murder in January nineteen ninety five, Beta believes that Lusmaari did not act alone and he
wanted to prove it to know everything. In his investigations, he discovered that she was still a life after the authorities themselves had told the Coral family that she was dead. To refute what he had been told earlier, he only had to look at social media.
Also effectiam I searched for her on Facebook and I found her los Maria Bolda Maso with pictures and everything.
In his first taxes to the profile, Beto saved some photos from.
It, Tanana de photo Pla and de Columbia.
She had a profile picture a Columbian flag with red pain resembling blood and an image that said Colombia mourns its heroes, Columbia mourns it's dead.
As neither he nor his mother knew her, Beto had to make sure it was really.
Her Balbo experient and that's wh I decided to go back to the file get her information, ID number, license plate number, and the ID showed as active.
Upon seeing this, Beto asked a police friend about los Mari. This friend told him that LUs Mario Roleta was not only alive but also retired from the police force. When I met Veto in one of our interviews from his exile, I asked him more about this. It too unaske ya adaskon consul informacy on an internet? Okay, And once you find her information on the internet, did you try to contact her? What did you do next?
Si commetis, Let's give me yes, I made that mistake. I sent a message to her and I said, Hi, Louise Mari, my name is Umberto Corral. I am the son of the police Major Umberto Corral. I want to talk to you, and I never got a response. Then I found her on Instagram. She ended up blocking me on all social media.
She then disappeared again, just like when she appeared briefly at Captain Corral's funeral. But Beto didn't stop there. He needed to know more. He searched for clues. Among the photos he managed to say before louse Mati blocked.
Him, saw yaks thineans thousand years photo the super Filia Facebook in La Florida.
I know she was in the United States because some of her Facebook profile photos were in Florida. She posted a location in Georgia and a for tamlis or food, I don't remember which one, or for some beauty salon whose address was in Georgia. I looked out the address and decided I would go to Georgia to look for her.
At that time, Beto was living in Miami, Los MATI was close. Beto wanted to find her at all costs he had to, but the clues he had were not enough. I looked at the profile that Beto could al shared with me. In it, there are several photos that she has shared, many in the the United States. She looks happy. I could describe it as a totally normal profile of someone her age. There are photos with her daughter with friends, sitting at a bar, having a drink, dyeing her hair,
and smiling at a hockey game. One more Columbian immigrant in the United States. I tried to get in touch with her. I introduced myself and told her about this project and explained that as the main witness to the murder of Captain Umberto Corral, I would like to be able to hear her version. However, like she did with Betto a few years ago, she blocked me on Facebook.
In one of the photos that Betto still has. LUs Mattie is seen sitting in a highchair wearing a black skirt and a red blouse outside a place that appears to be a pool hall. On the entrance door, you can read the place's name, Lavaca Billiards. Below the name is the address, followed by the name of the town Talker Georgia. It is a small town outside of Atlanta, just about five hundred kilometers from Miami. Immediately, I took to Google to search for the place, but it was
listed as permanently closed. From the photos of the place on Facebook, it can be inferred that it operated until mid twenty twenty one. It seemed like a party center for the Hispanic community because the posts were in Spanish. The photos show a stage where Latin music artists perform. Today, after ceasing operations, Lavaca Billiards has a new name, La
Chona Billiards. It is another venue in the typical setting of an American suburb, a strip mall with several businesses together facing a large park lot with some trees in the background. After analyzing that photo in detail and trying to reach Los matti through it, Beto realized he only had one address where she had been one day. The photo revealed little.
Nataniela Sertza understa tell me in Tenia, photos in Columbia.
I was not certain where she was. She also had photos in Colombia, but the photos in Colombia were old and the most recent ones were in the United States, so it seemed like she was currently living in the United States.
Although Beto and los Matti both live in the United States, it is a huge country. He could not return to Colombia, but in the United States he had all the freedom to contact her and look for her. However, that Georgia address was the only clue that this improvised detective had. Locating Los Matti was like finding a needle in a haystack. Beto decided to follow other leads that would reveal much darker issues about the recent past in Colombia. He wondered
day by day, night after night. Where is LUs Maria Roleta. Why did she block him when he tried to contact her? How could he find her? Why did she do it? Did she act alone? And if not? Who ordered the killing of his father? This is Transportista who murdered Captain Corral Episode six, The Black Box Better knew that LUs Maria Roleta was alive, and he believed that she recited in the United States, but he had no more information. What he had was a hunch that kept him awake
at night. Betta was sure that los mari had not acted alone.
Then Troo rumores se comenta lepico rastri.
It's rumor that agent lous Maria Bola Maso saw my dad out. The prosecutor said that himself. I don't know what selling out means in Mexico or the United States, but in Colombia it means to betray, hand over, or sell someone out. But the prosecutor frames it as a rumor, not as a testimony.
The prosecutor Vetto refers to was the judicial investigator in charge of the case, Eduardo Santa Cruz. This was concluded in the report Joe Ques.
So it's one thing for me to talk about that rumor, but for an investigator to say that means agent lous Maria sold out my dad, I mean she handed him over.
The case file is not a short document. It's one hundred and forty pages typed. Much of it is difficult to read in the typical, dry and convoluted language. That makes them so particular. After reviewing it, I was also surprised in the report. It reads and I quote within the rumors, it is said that agentlus Mario roleta sold out officer called al Cabajero, but she herself says that her superiors cleared her of all.
Blame in casilcumstance. Yes, aikiprintreso a la fiskalia.
How can you ask that of the Prosecutor's office under what circumstances? And the report concludes by saying, in this way, I hereby submit this report for the purposes that his office deems appropriate. Just a sponsious pilot did when he washed his hands, he cleared a man who had never stolen, killed or done anything wrong. Un warned that you had to choose between a man who had indeed committed murder,
but that the decision was yours. That's what Prosecutor Eduardo Santa Cruz and therefore Prosecution Office number one to treat it. On January twelfth, nineteen ninety five, they stupidly, ridiculously and absurdly decided to close my dad's case.
If Lousmari had betrayed Captain Corral, then it was clear that she didn't tac the loan. She acted on someone else's orders. It was a criminal network. Beto had to investigate who they were. Beto Correl looked at what the prosecution didn't investigate. They archived the case eight months after the incident, when they could still do something to prevent
the murder from going unpunished. After the case was closed, twenty years went by and the crime passed the Statute of Limitations, and so Beto's hopes of finding justice for his father's case came to an end. When I traveled to Colombia to do the interviews for this project, I went to Medigin, where Captain Corral was murdered so many years ago. There in a beautiful courtyard of one of the dozens universities in the city, I talked to Catalina Sanchezzcovar.
So it does Ento Universitaria Lata Dericho Dela University at Pontificio Oligin.
I am a university professor at the Pontifical Olivarian University School of Law in medigan. I am also the former director of the Memory House Museum in the city of Medigin.
Catalina's scholar with experiences, supporting victims and clarifying the truth of the armed conflict in Columbia. I told her about Captain Corral's case, about Beto's search for justice, and about how the prosecution didn't investigate much further there into his murders.
Okay, to a brand Maas, I believe.
What you're referring to is what are now known as black boxes. These are a series of events and circumstances that we so happened but cannot explain you to information we don't.
Have hidden, like how that file was kept for twenty seven years.
It's again whilegun institution on dna ESA informa.
It's called a black box when an individual or institution holds information needed to find links to and understand what has happened, for instance, what was the cause of death? Are these events linked or is this an unrelated incident like they say in movies, make it look like an accident. Colombia owes a massive debt to its history, and it's.
Thevictims, victims like Beto and his family, who are still searching for the truth, even almost thirty years later. That file rebuilt a lot to veto, but it has only been his own investigations and conclusions. Nothing has been clarified officially.
Okay, okay, Naska hasnigras in us Ristoria, in US memorial.
There are black boxes that we don't have. There is an unwillingness to let people know the truth because it could be probably compromised integrity of the institutions within the country.
Let's go through Catalina's reflection. If these black boxes, as she calls them, were opened, the structures of the state could be compromised. What kind of institutions or people could be compromised if the whole truth behind Captain Kolz murdered was revealed. Remember that los Maria Roleta as a police officer. She was part of the Colombian state. When I investigated this. In one of my conversations with Veto, I asked him
something that I considered essential. He called Chris cayas motivos. Okay, and and what do you think was the motive? Why do you think someone would want to kill your father, whether it was her or the assailants.
A party the.
De Las Well, my father, apart from being one of the heads of the search blog that killed Pablos Cobar, was an honest officer. He was an officer dedicated to his institution anes not only within the Search block, but also as director of the Anti Narcotics chief at the Eldorado Airport in Bogota.
Remember that Captain Koral, while working at the airport in the capital of his country, seized several packages with hidden drugs.
And he said, oh Kjo.
In that incident, my dad's superior officer got called for allowing the pilots to travel with cocaine.
With these investigations, he gained a reputation, as they say in Colombia, of being a rat or an informant. According to Veto, Captain Corral was threatened with death for these acts and later when he joined the Search block.
Then trial. Within the search block, there were many acts of corruption. My dad was part of the Search block, but he was part of the uniform search block. He said, it was like the ones we saw on TV wearing a green olive.
Had the members of the search block with the beret, that is, those who wore an olive green cap. Captain Corral was fully uniform and identified, unlike other members of the Search block who worked undercover dressed in civilian clothes. There are accusations that link some of these undercover agents with abuses against the civil population that reached extreme points. There were massacres and extra judicial executions in Medijin at that time. One of them known as the Oporto massacre.
Una Masakremoi dolorosa, a very painful massacre. More than twenty two young people were massacred in an instant.
An armed commando interrupted a night of drinking in a well known bar in the city of Medijin called the Porto. Ultimately, more than twenty people were killed. There are still several theories about who the killers were. It could have been Pablo Escobar's people, but there were those who believed there were state agents avenging colleagues who had fallen due to drug trafficking. But that massacre was not the only.
One comments massacre.
They committed another massacre of five children in an neighborhood in Medijan in nineteen ninety two.
The Vigatina massacre on November fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, and it wasn't five dead but nine. That night, a group of teenagers were gathered after attending mass when twelve members of the police arrived, hooted and fired at them.
Patriiana's Kagiate Medjini Jiagavana los Barrios.
In they patrolled the streets of Medagine and arrived in the neighborhoods and killed the young people simply because they suspected something.
Four years after the Vijatina massacre, under pressure from activists led by the mothers of the deceased, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights held the Colombian state responsible for the massacre. Two years later, the government accepted responsibility and dismissed the police officers who were involved in the shooting. However, to this day, those responsible have not been brought to justice.
In the early nineties, during the witch hunt to find Paulos Cobar, members of the police and army committed atrocities against innocent citizens. These are some of the painful memories of the armed conflict in Columbia, a conflict full of black boxes. These black boxes could compromise a prestige of state institutions because it has been proven that they were linked to paramilitary groups Luego and Nero Melos.
Then, in January nineteen ninety three, there were the Pepes Los pepes, an acronym for persecuted by pablos Kvar.
They were a group of active members of the Medaging cartel who deserted their leader to join the other side and begin collaborating with the Search Block to hand over Pabloskvar. Los Pepes also included members of the rival cartel, the Cali Cartel, and the paramilitary group Auto Defensas del Magdalena Medio among the ranks. This group of criminals cooperated by
sharing intelligence with the Search Block. According to the classified DEA documents, US authorities met with the then Attorney General of Colombia in nineteen ninety three. In the meeting, they provided evidence that high ranking members of the Search Block were involved in bribes, drug trafficking, human rights abuses, and
possible murders. Colombia Attorney General Gustavo de griff told the US embassy that relations with Los Pepes had gone too far and that they themselves, not the police, were making decisions for the Search Block.
Yes, I don't know you, it's los Que. There was a division within the Search block with those who patrol with lost peppers, those who carried out operations with lost peppers. I know that my father did not agree with that situation. I don't have proved that my father reported any of them, but I talked to many witnesses from that time who were afraid to testify, and my father was considered an intruder within the search block.
Thus, according to Beto, Captain Umberto Carrel was labeled as a rat, and he made a powerful enemy within the Search block, a colleague with whom he did not get along at all, A figure whose shadow still darkens the history of Columbia today, A man whose steps to Columbian society in the form of secrets are hidden in one of these black boxes. Will be back with more after the break.
Hm.
As Better grew up, he understood that Captain Correll was investigating his own colleagues who were involved with outlaw groups such as Los Peppes.
Because my dad came from a d i j i N formation.
As we mentioned in the third episode formerly.
Intelligension, those cases investigals prop policy.
The d i j i N was the police counter intelligence. They investigate their own police officers, and they believe that my dad was in the search blood to write on people. But my dad seeing all those abuses they committed, all those crimes they committed, even killing their own.
Colleagues because members of the search Blog were accused of something serious.
El caste porstenante la policia que fetestigo the unamasakre Comtiano.
The case of Lieutenant Porus, a police lieutenant who witnessed a massacre committed in Metagin by the Search Blog. He reported his own colleagues and they set him up by planting a weapon in his vehicle. They take him to court and put him in jail. The lieutenant escapes from jail, but in the end the Search Blog ended up killing him.
Like Captain carl did. At the time, Lieutenant nest To Duardo Porras had reported corrupt behavior by other police officers and he was killed on January twenty ninth, nineteen ninety one in Bojaca. The National Police of Colombia at that time was infiltrated by different criminal groups. One of the members of the search Blog who collaborated with Los Peppes is the same one who claims to have shot Pauloskar. His name Ugo Aguilar Naranjo. Ugaghilaire led the operation on
the days Coolar was taken down. He was the operational commander of the search block. Perhaps you have seen a famous photograph of him. It was taken on December two, nineteen ninety three. He appears standing on a roof in Medigin with a gun in his hand, smiling with a mustache, holding the shirt of the lifeless body of the drug lord.
As stated in the d class if Ida document mentioned a few moments ago, the top leaders of the search block, such as Ugaguilaire, had gone too far into the relationship with Los Peppes. Captain Corral and Ugagilare were colleagues, but according to Veto, they had their differences.
And Majoragillar no kara.
Major Ugagillar did not like my dad. He was an envious guy. Even in his own statements. He admitted to threatening a woman with rape, put in a bomb in Pablos Kobar's family's house to frame someone. He admits to crimes. He admits to meetings with those peppers. My dad didn't like Ugagilar and Uguagillar didn't like my dad either.
And according to Beto, based on what he had discussed with his mom, my Papa star Completement said, well, okay.
My dad was sure that he was surrounded by corruption by criminal police officers. Those were the people who killed Pablo's Kobar.
Despite the corrupt practices of members of the Search Block and their alliances with groups like ths Peppers being public, they did not have judicial repercussions. In Cologne. Many have conducted investigations into this to prevent them from falling into impunity and.
Only Rooky public.
Mascaran I published a book called Unmasking a Man who killed Pablo Escobar.
He is Juliosesar Prieto, a retired colonel from the Columbian Army. In twenty seventeen, he published a book about Ua Hiller and how he managed to track down Publio Scoar as it rained outside, which often happens in Bota. I talked to him in his apartment, a modest home in an affluent neighborhood of the capitol. Julius Prieto is not just any writer interested in the relationship between politics and paramilitarism.
Prieto is described as the only officer in the history of the Colombian Army and police who, while still in service, denounced and demonstrated the links between recognized figures in the politics of his country with terrorist organizations.
Correstamente conformado. It was my job to search for the truth and I was able to show that the Search Block in the national government had actually formed an allyship with both the drug traffickers and the so called paramilitaries to achieve the objective of locating Pablo Escobar and killing him.
And let's remember, finishing Pablos Kovard was not an easy task. He was a powerful drug lord who wreaked havoc on all the institutions of Colombia. People were terrified of him. That's why the man who brought down Eskovar himself was celebrated and appreciated by many Colombians, and so figures like Google Ilere went from being policemen to politicians.
In Courcia.
In Scheuebartamento and Santandero, Aguilaid retired from the National Police, he entered into politics. He ran to be an assembly member in Santandel. He becomes a councilman, but he didn't even finish his term before running for the governorship of Santander.
Ugaguilare a dark shadow, a former member of the Search Block and powerful politician in his country, appeared time and time again in Beto's investigationsstyle.
Ugaguilad has always been involved in criminal activities. He's always had connections with the legal organizations.
Betta wondered if there was a relationship between Ugaguilare and LUs Maria Bolela, who confessed to firing a mysterious fourth shot. He wondered if they had acted together, if they were really in cahoots. These suspicions were all linked to the supposedly bad relationship Aguillaire had with Captain Corral.
And corruption killed my dad. The mafia within the police killed him.
Beto's investigation details will be heard in the next episode of Transportista who murdered Captain Corral one.
Of business tep processors.
The Lost Paramilitaries, your leaders, the political Apple Journalist.
When the demobilization of the paramilitaries begins, the leaders of these groups begin to point out the politicians they helped get elected in specific regions, and that's where lar name comes up. Several paramilitary leaders stated that within the regional domain, Pact was chosen to live in Santander because they already knew him from their child with lost papers, so they gave him other political support.
Indusis coral is unima the local.
Essentially, Korral is a victim of everything that happened then.
Corral is a victim of the emergence of drug trafficking, in the persecution of Escobar, of the internal corruption within the Search block, of the internal complaints he made against his superiors, of everything that happened during that Seorge block, and he was one of the people pleading for an internal investigation, saying that although they had successfully persecuted at Kobald, the ends didn't justify the means that the principles and
duties of the authorities involved also needed to be questioned.
Transportista Who Murdered Captain Corral is a production of Exile Content Studio and Detective in partnership with Iihearts Michael to the podcast Network and is hosted by me Alvaro Sespes. Production by Diego Livares and Alvaro Sespedes with the help of Sabine Jansen, ann Isabel, Octavio Veronic, Hernandez, Reynold Gutierrez and Stella Emmett. Written by Alvaro Sespes, edited by Carmel Gratterol, fact checking by the sire Jeppes, adaptation to English by
Magali Stransky. Executive producers are Carmel Gratterol, Rose Reed, is Zac Lee and the Euendricuozora. Sound design Uga Mendoza and Gonzalo Messi. Original music by Sebastian Leon. Thanks to the voice actors who contributed in this episode Beto corral, Is Razim and Silla, Julios sar Preto, Is Reynolds, Gutires, Catalina Sanrancescobar Is Veronica Hernandez. Daniel Battista overse his audio at Exil Content Studio. Our executive producers that I heard are
Gisel Beanzies and Arlene Santana. Research by Manuelarios and Emma Friedland, Production supervision by Julio Gonzalez. Created by Diagendrique Ossoro. For more podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. The views and opinions expressed in this episode do not represent the producing companies and are solely the product of Frankly numberto Coral Garrido's own investigations, known as Beto Coral