“An arrested fugitive always feels relief. And Jesús told me at the Murcia police station: “I wish it would end.” Inspector Darío Varela tells ABC by telephone. Head of Fugitive Group 2 of the Udyco Central Station, this experienced national police officer personally confirmed that Jesús Heredia Iglesias was the assassin they had been looking for since 2015.
The officer entered the room, turned the fugitive around, shined a flashlight in his face and checked for a very distinctive mole under one ear. There was no doubt: “It’s him.” Jesús Heredia Iglesias was handcuffed to the ground, with his hands behind his back and in his underwear, because he had been caught in bed at seven in the morning last Thursday, before dawn had yet broken.
Thanks to citizen collaboration, the man who shot Jesús Robles Galera after a fight at the Nelly bar in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) in the early hours of Friday June 12, 2009, received two emails containing precise information. Inspector Varela and his men went to the apartment in the capital Murcia where they were able to chain up one of Spain’s ten most wanted criminals. Finally, things came full circle.
Jesús Heredia had been on the run since being sentenced to 16 years in prison for the crime of Robles, who died for a seemingly trivial expression: He, who was a payo, greeted his assassin and his uncle Juan Heredia with a “hello, cousins”. However, the two relatives, of gypsy origin, interpreted the greeting as an affront to them and Jesús Robles was shot three times, including one fatally in the heart.
Even if “work has never stopped on a case that has always remained alive”, the truth is that It gained momentum when Varela took the reins less than two years ago. He and his companions met with murder investigators at Talavera police station and also spoke with confidants. Conclusion? Jesus could be in the capital of Murcia. They went there.
Then they realized that it wasn’t going to be easy because “there are six brothers and several are very close in age and have similar physical characteristics. Same age, same hair, very similar face… It was a very surgical subject, very difficult.” In two words: a challenge. They worked with their companions from the Fugitive Group at the Murcia police station, they spent hours and dispersed in Patiño, a neighborhood near the city.
There they guarded a building considered a “mother ship,” where Jesús Heredia’s father and family branch lived. With technical means, The police carefully analyzed the brothers’ faces and physical characteristics. to find out if Jesus was among them. “It was very complicated, it was almost impossible. A lot of time has passed and people have changed, which added a lot of difficulty to the investigation,” explains the inspector.
There was no result and efforts continued, but the fugitive was not located. It was then a question of including him in the list of “10 most wanted”, made public in July. He was a fugitive “likely to be recognized in the street” and who had not fled Spain because of his family roots.
The change in strategy worked. Now, a lot of information has reached the Fugitives Section; He was reportedly seen in various locations across the country. Varela and his men chose to focus on whoever placed the fugitive in Murcia. And there, the two emails they received a few days before the arrest were decisive. The officers checked the data and the result was positive. Jesús Heredia could be hiding in an apartment on Álvarez Quintero Street, at door number 2.
Surveillance of the group led by Varela and his companions from the Murcian Udyco confirmed that they were facing the assassin of Jesús Robles. Bigger and balder, he hid in 2nd B with his wife, She was the one who went out into the street to do groceries and other errands. “If it was his brother, he would have gotten away with it without any problem because none of them were wanted by the Justice system,” adds the inspector with the logic of someone who has mastered his profession.
Armed with a court order to enter and search, a dozen men in black from the Special Operational Security Group (GOES) and the Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR) of Murcia entered the apartment, arrested Jesús Heredia and Varela fixed his gaze on the characteristic mole under one ear that betrayed him. The fourth on the national police’s “10 most wanted” list had fallen.
