2024-04-12 11:03:33
The former lawyer of drug trafficker Leandro Norero, Hélive Angulo Bravo, alias Estimado, in the delivery of his anticipated testimony in the Metastasis case, said that the mayor of Manta Agustín Intriago – murdered on July 23, 2023 – told him that an advisor to former assemblyman Fernando Villavicencio – murdered on August 9, 2023 – required $300,000 in cash and $100,000 monthly in order to no longer publish news against Norero.
“Mayor Agustín Intriago told me that an advisor to Fernando Villavicencio had requested a meeting with him, to which he agreed since at that time through social networks, on the pages managed by the former assemblyman, he denounced the acts of corruption emanating from Norero and the links it would have had with the Municipality of Manta,” Hélive Angulo began.
“The mayor met at that time with the advisor (of Villavicencio), whose names I do not know, and told him that Villavicencio required the sum of $300,000 in cash and $100,000 monthly in order not to continue publishing news against Norero,” he noted.
Norero’s former lawyer, who has been identified as alias Estimado, assured that he was not aware of and was not a witness to the alleged conversation between Intriago and Villavicencio’s advisor, who was murdered after an event during his campaign for the early presidential elections.
In her testimony, Hélive Angulo mentioned Xavier J. and the former Correismo assemblyman Ronny Aleaga, prosecuted in the Metastasis case.
“I don’t know and I wasn’t a witness to said conversation either, only he (Intriago) told me that. I only passed the message to Norero and he consulted with Xavier J., who managed three users (in the application to send encrypted messages), Ravioli, Husband, Dady Yanky.
Xavier J. From what Norero was able to tell me, he told him not to accept any type of blackmail from Villavicencio since he was used to it all the time and had done it the same way with him, to which Mr. Norero told me: ‘ Dear, I am not going to accept this information from him, rather I am going to try to generate a political relationship, since Xavier J. manages an assembly member, the same one who responds to the name of Ronny Aleaga, whom we identified everything the time in the chats like the Russian one,” he revealed.
And the lawyer Hélive Bravo added: “Mr. I liked the fact that complaints were made, requests for information, and until a certain time discredited the information that Villavicencio had provided up to that moment, which for the most part was true.”
According to Hélive Bravo’s story, Norero and Xavier J. financed former legislator Aleaga with cash with the purpose “that he would have the elements to be able to carry out said proceedings, for which on one occasion, with my driver, he was delivered $20,000 in Quito.” The lawyer recalled that at that time Aleaga was working on the popular consultation campaign promoted by Guillermo Lasso’s government.
“At that time they were in the yes and no campaign. Norero was quite afraid of the issue of extradition, since the activity to which he was dedicated today is fully known by Ecuadorian society. So, one of the people who carried out the issue of the consultation was Mr. Ronny Aleaga, and Mr. Norero tried and carried out the financing…”, mentioned Hélive Bravo.
The former legislator would have been the operational arm in the National Assembly of a “criminal enterprise” structured to benefit Norero, according to the investigation by the State Attorney General’s Office.
Aleaga left the country on December 26, 2023, from Tulcán (Carchi) to Pasto (Colombia), according to a report on migratory movements from the Judicial Police.
‘Norero gave a loan of $500,000 to Agustín Intriago’
Leandro Norero, alias Patrón, would have wanted to operate in the city of Manta, since he had a connection with Mayor Agustín Intriago, according to the testimony provided in advance in the Metastasis case by lawyer Hélive Angulo Bravo.
“Leandro Norero Tigua at that time was trying to put his money into state works or state contracts. In this way, he put them in contact by telephone with the mayor and told him about his desire to be able to invest money regarding the issue of public works.
I spoke with the mayor, since I had been working with him since 2019 helping him with very basic legal issues, and the mayor asked me if I could tell Norero that he could help him with a loan of $500,000 and the purchase of an apartment in the Poseidon building, which had been obtained through the settlement of a horizontal property procedure that was carried out in that building,” commented alias Estimado.
According to the lawyer, Norero proceeded to deliver the loan of $500,000 to Intriago so that this money would be, based on what he said, invested in public works with the promise that in the future Norero could acquire a construction company. and participate in public procurement processes. For the delivery of half a million dollars in cash, the lawyer indicated, they gave the drug trafficker a 30% share of a contract. (YO)