Brazilian businessman Luciano Pampado Casquel, also identified in Paraguay as Luciano Pereira Castelo, is a fugitive after Paraguay’s courts ordered his arrest for extradition to Brazil. The decision was issued on September 8 by Judge Francisco Antonio Acevedo Morel, but by the time the order reached the National Police, he could no longer be found at his home in Lambaré. Intelligence information indicates that he may have fled to Argentina.
Casquel, 68, became the subject of an investigation after a video recorded on August 28 showed the businessman pointing a pistol and threatening a Paraguayan truck driver outside St. Anne’s School, in Asunción’s Mbocayaty neighborhood. The driver had complained that a Toyota Fortuner was blocking the way.
The vehicle’s license plate enabled his identification by the Directorate-General of War Materiel (Digemabel), the military agency responsible for controlling weapons and war materiel in Paraguay. On September 1, agents went to the businessman’s home. The following day, the Investigations Department seized the Fortuner but did not find Casquel.
He went directly to the Public Prosecutor’s Office accompanied by a lawyer. Prosecutor María del Carmen Palazón did not order his arrest or charge him over the incident, and authorized the vehicle’s return. Assistant prosecutor Claudia Vera Castro reportedly personally handled the procedure and argued with police officers who supported provisional detention.
The agents told the Public Prosecutor’s Office representatives that the man known as Luciano Pereira Castelo was in fact Luciano Pampado Casquel, wanted in Brazil for aggravated homicide. The crime allegedly occurred on October 9, 1987, at a farm in São Manuel, in the state of São Paulo. According to the documents mentioned in the report, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally stabbing a 19-year-old man but left Brazil before serving the sentence.
The case also reveals a long period living under a Paraguayan identity. Casquel is said to have lived in the country for about 30 years and to have maintained vehicle-import businesses, a car wash and other ventures. In 2010, the National Police reportedly found a false Paraguayan identity document during an operation at his car dealership, which was then being investigated on suspicion of money laundering, but the case did not move forward.
Before the arrest order, the businessman filed a preventive habeas corpus petition to block further police action and a possible extradition, but the request was rejected. The delay between his appearance before the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the court’s decision allowed him to leave his known address. The episode combines a recent allegation of an armed threat with an international extradition request and raises questions about the Paraguayan authorities’ handling of the case.