Jamilton Andrés Ulloa Suárez was an Ecuadorian criminal and gang leader better known as El Topo who illegally controlled the mining, distribution, and marketing of gold from Bolivar State in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

through his gang Banda El Topo. He is also known for perpetrating the

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

of twenty-eight miners in

Tumeremo Tumeremo is a town in the state of Bolívar in eastern Venezuela. It is the shire town of the Sifontes Municipality. History Its first settlers were Guayan Indians and Kamaracotos, coming from the savanna of the Divina Pastora and Tupuquen l ...

in 2016.

Biography

El Topo was born on August 16, 1972, in Santo Domingo, Ecuador as Jamilton Andrés Ulloa Suárez. He first entered Venezuela in 2002 through

San Antonio del Táchira San Antonio del Táchira is a city in the Venezuelan Andean state of Táchira. The busy highway across the Simón Bolívar International Bridge linking the cities of Cúcuta, Colombia, and San Cristóbal, Venezuela, passes through San Antonio d ...

and registered as a foreign citizen with resident status in 2004. Prior to moving to Venezuela, El Topo lived in Colombia and received paramilitary training at a young age. He first worked as a miner in Bolivar State, and over time rose through the ranks of illegal gold cartels. He became second-in-command of the illegal gold trade in Bolivar, and grew to manage thirty gold mines in Bolivar and Guyana after the death of his brother in 2009. El Topo was known for his brutal tactics of dismembering opponents and feeding the body parts to animals. On March 4, 2016, residents of

reported the disappearance of twenty-eight miners from the town. El Topo became the prime suspect for the disappearance, and the bodies of the miners were discovered in a mass grave with many having been shot in the head. The massacre was reportedly the result of a conflict between El Topo's gang Banda El Topo and another gang led by El Gordo. Following the massacre, El Topo became the most wanted criminal in Venezuela. SEBIN, the Venezuelan intelligence service, killed El Topo on May 6 at the El Limon mine in El Callao Municipality, Bolivar.

References

{{Reflist 1972 births 2016 deaths Ecuadorian criminals People from Santo Domingo de los Colorados