The National Police of Paraguay identified Gustavo Rubén Goncalvez Vera, 31, as the main suspect in the double homicide that occurred on Saturday, May 16, in Colônia Paraná, district of Cambyretá, department of Itapúa. The victims are Francisco Alcides Saucedo Quiñónez, 28, and Brian Ariel Lugo, 24.
Saucedo's body was found riddled with bullets on the edge of a rural road. Lugo's body, who had a criminal record for fraud, was found inside a burned Toyota Auris, about 10 kilometers from the location of the first body. The vehicle belonged to Saucedo.
According to the police, Lugo's relatives reported that he received a call requesting a meeting and asked Saucedo to take him to Colônia Paraná. “Both victims knew the attacker, who allegedly entered the vehicle through the back seat, fired the shots, threw the driver's body into the bushes, took the car and the other body a considerable distance, set it on fire, and fled,” the police report says.
The call for the meeting is said to have come from Gustavo Rubén Goncalvez Vera, who is now the main suspect. Prosecutor Giovanna Denisse Vera Kettermann ordered his arrest based on the testimony of Lugo's relatives.
During searches in Encarnación, police did not find Goncalvez, but seized a brick of cocaine, weapons, and ammunition at his home. Investigations indicate that he led a drug distribution network, in which context the crime may have occurred.