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An ex-cop and member of a Peruvian ‘death squad’ that encouraged crooks to commit crimes in order to shoot them dead has been arrested by police in Spain.

National Police officers arrested the former cop – a fugitive from justice – in Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, central Spain last week.

Police footage shows the man – who is accused of murdering 10 people – being led out of a car and into a police station in handcuffs.

He had been living under the radar in the Spanish city of some 87,000 inhabitants with his family.

Luis Alberto Mio Morocho, 52, is wanted in his native Peru over the extrajudicial killings of 10 people.

He is believed to have been a member of an illegal group within the National Police of Peru called the Esquadron de la Muerte (Death Squadron).

Members of the Death Squadron reportedly executed alleged criminals in order to earn promotions and decorations within the police force.

But they are also accused of falsifying intelligence and killing innocent people in staged confrontations between 2012 and 2016.

Prosecutors in Peru are asking for a 35-year prison sentence for Mio Morocho, who was a non-commissioned officer in the Peruvian force.

In a statement obtained by Newsflash on 11th October, Spain’s National Police Corps said: “Agents of the National Police have arrested in Guadalajara a fugitive wanted in Peru as the author of 10 murders.

“The arrested is a former non-commissioned officer of the National Police of Peru wanted internationally for the commission of 10 murders when he was part of an illegal group called ‘Esquadron de la Muerte’ dedicated, allegedly, to earning promotions and decorations for its members through extrajudicial executions of alleged criminals.

“The investigation began a few days ago when the agents received a request for collaboration from the judicial and police authorities of Peru, through the National Central Bureau of INTERPOL in Madrid, to take steps to find out the whereabouts of a fugitive through the corresponding Red Notice.

“According to the initial information, the defendant is charged with the murder of 10 people when he was part of the so-called ‘Esquadron de la Muerte’.

“According to the Peruvian authorities, the illegal group was dedicated to capturing informants, paid by the organisation, who encouraged low-level criminals to commit crimes such as kidnappings or million-dollar robberies, information that they later leaked to the police group.

“Thus, the agents surprised the criminals to gun them down, later reporting that the shootings had been the product of risky confrontations.

“After the information, the investigators began the steps to locate him until they discovered that he was living with his family in Guadalajara.

“Finally, last week he was arrested in the surroundings of his home and, later, he was made available to the National Court.”

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