Venezuelan gang leader killed in police operation

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan gang leader Carlos Revette, known as El Koki and wanted by authorities for months, was killed in a police operation near Caracas, Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos said on Tuesday.

“After an armed confrontation with police forces, Alias ​​el KoKi, Carlos Luis Revette, was killed,” Ceballos wrote on Twitter. “We continue searching for his accomplices.”

He did not provide further details.

The Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Ceballos on Sunday had reported armed clashes between police and gangs in the area of ​​Tejerias, in the state of Aragua.

Residents of the Caracas neighborhood of El Cementerio, where Revette operated for years, in July spent hours sheltering in place due to clashes between police and gangs that left 26 people dead. That led the government to offer a reward of up to $500,000 for Revette’s capture.

Authorities accuse the gangs of crimes including drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

Luis Izquiel, a criminology professor at the Central University of Venezuela, said there are between 40 and 50 gangs in the country, each comprised of more than 50 people.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas; writing by Brian Ellsworth in Miami; Editing by Leslie Adler)