Simon Hunter
A VENEZUELAN citizen was arrested earlier this week when trying to enter Colombia on suspicions that he was one of the hitmen that tried to kill one of the co-founders of Spain’s hard-right Vox party in Madrid back in November.
The Colombian border authorities announced the arrest of Greg Oliver Higuera Marcano via their account on social media network X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, explaining that an Interpol arrest order had appeared when the suspect tried to enter the South American country using his own name and documents.
The suspect, who uses the alias ‘Maquia’, is wanted by the Spanish authorities investigating the attempted killing back in November, when Alejo Vidal-Quadras, 78, who was the former president of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and co-founder of hard-right Vox, was shot in the face outside his home on November 9.
Colombia has already started the process of extraditing Marcano back to Spain so that he can face trial in Madrid.
After the attack, which saw Vidal-Quadras suffer major injuries to his jaw but escape with his life, there was speculation that he had been targeted due to his history with Vox. But while in hospital, he released a letter in which he accused the Iranian authorities of having been behind the botched assassination due to his support for resistance groups against the Iranian government.
The police have not ruled out other theories relating to the attack, according to Spanish press reports.
A total of four arrests have now been made in connection with the attack: two in Spain’s Lanjaron in Granada province and a third in Fuengirola in Malaga. A fifth suspect is still being sought, who the police have identified as 37-year-old Mehrez Ayari, a French citizen of Tunisian origin and the man suspected of pulling the trigger.
The two suspects arrested in Lanjaron were Naraya Gomez and his girlfriend, Sasha Brooks, a British expat in her 20s.
Read more:
- British woman arrested in connection with assassination attempt of far-right politician in Spain
- The ‘vibrant and fashionable’ young British woman arrested in Spain as part of terror probe into Vox assassination attempt
