The names behind the narco war in Uruguay: one by one, the criminal leaders the Police managed to capture

Criminal leaders from Uruguay who were captured in recent months by the police Six out of every 10 homicides that occur in Uruguay originate in conflicts between criminal groups, according to official data. These are people who kill each other over reprisals, disputes between groups, or because they have accumulated years — even decades — of violence. Knowing the stories behind these murders is key, for the country's Ministry of the Interior, to trying to prevent the next attack. Interior Minister Carlos Negro relied on this figure to explain why homicides grew 14% in the first half of the year and to defend his ministry's strategy in Parliament. Murders stemming from criminal disputes have doubled over the last 12 years while other pathologies decreased. For example, crimes resulting from interpersonal conflicts and spontaneous altercations fell 5%; those from domestic violence, 10%; from robberies, 21%; and from other motives or unknown causes, 1%. Teenage hitman sentenced for quintuple homicide in Uruguay (Ministry of the Interior) Victims with criminal records, meanwhile, have doubled over the last 12 years. "Lethal violence has increased in recent months, with the majority of homicides concentrated in the metropolitan area," Negro told legislators. The Uruguayan government's strategy to confront this reality is police interventions through various operations, which so far has resulted in "degrading the operational capabilities" of 22 Uruguayan criminal structures, Negro reported. A total of 1,800 raids were carried out. Criminal organizations in Uruguay have three "most sensitive flanks," according to the Interior Minister: their leaders, drugs, and money. That is why police interventions are aimed at arrests, seizures, and asset laundering. But who are the criminal leaders who have been captured in Uruguay? Minister Carlos Negro mentioned their names in Parliament. Luis Fernando Fernández Albín was one of those mentioned by Negro. The drug trafficker was arrested in Argentina and is imprisoned in Uruguay, convicted of drug trafficking and laundering. Drug trafficker Luis Fernández Albín arrives in Uruguay after being extradited from Argentina (Ministry of the Interior Uruguay) Luis Alberto Betito Suárez was recently sentenced to three years and eight months for drug possession. He is considered one of the most dangerous criminals in the country and, although he claimed to have retired from the criminal world, the police never stopped watching him. El Betito Suárez, leader of a Uruguayan narco gang (Screenshot Subrayado/Canal 10) Loly Suárez Correa was the third criminal leader mentioned by Negro before the legislators. She is Betito's sister and was arrested at the end of 2025 for several drug-related offenses. Rodrigo Lescano was a partner of Betito and was also convicted. Ricardo Cáceres Correa, known as Ricardito, was convicted in July 2026. This well-known criminal directed torture from prison by video call and was linked to a triple murder. Ricardito, the Uruguayan narco who ran drugs from prison (Screenshot Telemundo/Canal 12) José Carlos Machado, el Pelón, was sentenced to the maximum penalty in September. The prosecutor who investigated the case described him as the "most prolific" serial killer. He had been killing since he was a teenager. El Pelón made prison gang signs at his last court hearing, in which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison (Screenshot Telenoche/Canal 4) Axel Joel Mattos, the leader of Los Colorados, a criminal group that disputes the traditional drug-selling market. He is personally involved in this war. In October 2024 his son, a one-year-old baby, was murdered in a narrow alley in Cerro Norte. The attack was aimed at him. Eduardo Félix Farías and Raimundo de Souza, two members of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and of the gang that planned the "heist of the century," as the attempt to break into a BBVA branch in Montevideo's old town became known. Seizures in the operation that prevented a bank robbery in Uruguay (Ministry of the Interior) The list of "narco leaders" mentioned by Negro was completed by: Fiorella Albín; Carlos Damián Araújo; Matías Suárez Barbero — of the Los Calidad gang, from Casabó —; Andrés Díaz — belonging to the Puglia —; Santiago Nicolás Rosa, el Dibu — from the metropolitan area of San José —; Gustavo Edgardo Casari, Piolín — recently arrested —; Gabriel Jiménez Mattos — also of the Colos —; Kevin Moroto — known for several episodes and homicide offenses —; Emanuel Pintos, Manu; Agustín Cuello — belonging to the Fraga, of La Cruz de Carrasco —; Diego Ezequiel Carballo — of the Priti —; Marcelo Surraco; and Ruben Darío Goncalves, alias el Sapo, from the Marconi area. "These are just some of the names of the people who were detained in this period. Each of them holds important positions in the criminal structures that have been targeted," Negro described after mentioning each of them. Operación Jacobo: 12 people brought before the courts after a mega anti-drug operation in Maldonado (Ministry of the Interior) The Interior Minister also mentioned several leaders who were captured in the country's interior. In Maldonado, for example, the main leaders of the area's organizations were arrested, such as Nicolás Montelongo Porley, leader of the organization, linked to the Patas Blancas. It is estimated that dozens of drug-selling points throughout the department were supplied by this organization. El Tonga, as Mario Gastón Fernández Pascal is known, was one of the main leaders of the Primer Comando de la Frontera, which operated in the departments of Treinta y Tres, Lavalleja, and Canelones. After mentioning these — and other names — the minister insisted on the explanation that many homicides occur "in contexts linked to organized crime and drug trafficking." "Many of the murdered people had significant criminal records," he said. Interior Minister Carlos Negro during the operation that foiled the attempted bank robbery (Ministry of the Interior) "On this point I want to be very clear: 'Let them kill each other!' cannot be a response from the State. We cannot accept that there be deaths that matter less to us because of who their victims are or the circumstances in which they occur. Every homicide challenges us as a State and as a society, and in the face of each one we have the same responsibility: to investigate, to solve, and to work to prevent a similar event from happening again. No life can fall outside the responsibility of the State," the minister said. Negro said the government's goal is to "pursue the perpetrators" of homicides and follow the money trail, "the ultimate cause of trafficking and of the deaths." One of the operations launched by the Ministry of the Interior to capture these criminals was called Atenea. Negro explained that it is aimed at "police presence, patrolling, and investigation in areas with high exposure to lethal violence." In the sectors where this intervention is applied, homicides fell 42% and people wounded by firearms 27%, according to official figures. Interior Minister Carlos Negro in front of the drugs that were dropped from a small plane in Uruguay (Ministry of the Interior) The Argos operation, meanwhile, is designed as a complement to this work in areas with recent homicides, wounded people, and shootouts. A third operation is Dominó, which "provides an immediate response in territories in conflict after incidents of armed violence." Negro reported that in Maldonado 130 raids have been carried out, after which there were 140 people charged or convicted by the courts. Several of the drug dens that were raided were boarded up or demolished, and 90 firearms, more than 85 kilos of cocaine and base paste, and more than 30 kilos of marijuana were seized.