A gran who masterminded a plan to murder her three grandchildren by drowning them in a barrel so she could enjoy life has finally been arrested almost four years later.

Yazmin Prieto Paduaniz, whose age was not given, was apparently fed up with looking after the three children Yoenny Daniela, 5, Brayan Alejandro, 7, and Branyelis Fabiana Prieto Paduaniz, 8, after her daughter was jailed, and decided to solve the problem by drowning them before finally enjoying life.

She was even about to board a plane for another trip at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia when she was finally caught.

Police believe that she worked together with other relatives of the children, an aunt and uncle, to carry out the murder that shocked not just Venezuelan but the world.

The gran ended up on the run after the bodies were discovered in the water barrel, and an international manhunt was organised for a crime that shocked the country.

Now four years later, she has finally been detained after she was identified at the Maiquetía International Airport shortly before catching a flight to an unspecified location.

Officials of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) of La Guaira arrested her, acting on an arrest warrant issued by a Venezuelan court on 23rd January 2019, almost four years ago.

The mother of the three children had been arrested and was in jail at the time, leaving the care of the kids in the hands of her sister Yasmin Prieto Paduaniz, 21, and mother Yazmin.

She started the investigation when she reported the children missing, and police then found the bodies in the water barrel at her home.

A forensic examination confirmed that the kids had been drowned with the bodies kept in the barrel on the 10th floor of the housing complex at Carlos Soublette de La Guaira parish.

She was arrested together with their uncle, Henry Alexander Prieto, 31, but the gran had already gone on the run.