London church shooting linked to Colombian cartel
A shooting outside a church in London Saturday, which injured at least six people, including a 7-year-old girl, might have been linked to a Colombian cartel that flooded the U.K. with cocaine, according to officials who said a 22-year-old man has been arrested as a suspect.
A “money deliverer” in a London-based drugs gang tied to the Colombian Cali cartel, identified as Carlos Arturo Sanchez-Coronado, was a former husband of 50-year-old Fresia Calderon, whose memorial service was targeted by the shooter, The U.K. Times reported, citing officials.
The shooting occurred outside St. Aloysius Roman Catholic church in Phoenix Road during the memorial Saturday afternoon for Calderon and her 20-year-old daughter, Sara Sanchez, who died within days of each other last November.
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Sanchez had been battling leukemia and died three weeks after her mother died from a pulmonary embolism on a flight from Colombia to London, according to The Sunday Times.
The gunman opened fire on mourners, leaving a 7-year-old girl fighting for her life and five others wounded. On Sunday, the girl was said to be in a serious but stable condition.
At least four women — aged 21, 41, 48 and 54 — and a 12-year-old girl were also injured in the shooting outside Euston railway station.
Police on Sunday arrested a 22-year-old man after a car was stopped in Cricklewood Lane in Barnet, north London, The Guardian reported. The identity of the suspect has not been revealed.
Sanchez-Coronado was jailed in the U.K. in 2009 for five-and-a-half years for helping his drugs gang launder money, said the Times, adding that he had briefly fled Britain, but was later captured by the police and became the first man to be extradited from Colombia to the U.K. He is believed to have died last year.
Officials were quoted as saying that the gang’s stranglehold on the country’s drug market was so tight that the price of cocaine surged 50% after its dismantling.
It is suspected that the shooter might have been targeting a particular guest in a revenge plot.
Hundreds of people were attending the memorial service when shots were fired from the vehicle.
"We believe the suspects discharged a shotgun from a moving vehicle, which was a black Toyota C-HR, likely a 2019 model or similar," said Superintendent Jack Rowlands of the Metropolitan Police.
An area resident told The Daily Mail that an emergency services helicopter had made an aborted landing near the railway station before flying off and eventually landing in a nearby school playground.
“When the service finished, we were outside to see the flying of doves [released as part of the memorial service]. A black car came and started to shoot bullets. It was chaotic,” a witness was quoted as saying.
Another witness said, “No one knew if it was a bomb or gunman. We were looking for places to hide. We all just snuggled into corners where we could. We left after about 10 minutes, I did not dare [leave before], according to MyLondon.
