Arnold Peralta: Police hunting killers of ex-Rangers player make their first arrests

[ian1964 10,457]

FIVE people were held during a dawn raid with weapons and a motorbike believed to have been used in the murder being seized.

 

POLICE in Honduras hunting the killers of ex-Rangers player Arnold Peralta have made their first arrests and seized the motorbike believed to have been used in the murder.

 

Four men and a woman were held during a dawn raid yesterday on a house in the port city La Ceiba where the 26-year-old midfielder was gunned down on December 10 as he went shopping.

 

Officers seized an R-15 rifle, a 9mm pistol, ammunition, military fatigues, phones and two motorbikes at the property in a residential area called Villa Genova.

 

A fifth man named as Moises Pascual Murillo, 28, was arrested as part of the same operation at another address in the city where police uniforms are understood to have been seized.

 

A police source told a local paper forensic experts are now examining one of the motorbikes suspected of being used by the hitman who killed dad-of-one Arnold.

 

Public Prosecution Service spokesman Elvis Guzman said: “Evidence identifying the alleged culprits of this crime have been found.

 

“Investigation teams have gone to La Ceiba to capture them. The authorities are committed to providing Arnold’s family and the Honduran people with answers.”

 

He added: “The details of the investigation are being kept confidential and while the investigation is ongoing, we can’t offer any more information.

 

“Several people were involved in this crime and police teams and public prosecutors are still working in La Ceiba.”

 

Authorities in Honduras have been claiming for several weeks that they are close to resolving Arnold’s murder.

 

The footballer, who played 25 times for Rangers between 2013 and 2015, was shot repeatedly as he returned to his Porsche Cayenne during a shopping trip with wife Vanessa Oliva and a friend to close a window he had left open.

 

Honduras’ Justice Minister Julian Pacheco claimed in the run-up to Christmas the investigation into Arnold Peralta’s murder was “80 per cent advanced.”

 

He said: “We have identified people who could have participated and in the next few hours there will be important developments in this case.

 

“It’s a case we’re going to resolve within a few days.”

 

Detectives have said Arnold was murdered because of a personal problem they have declined to elaborate on.

 

Vanessa Oliva, mum to the couple’s five-month-old daughter, called on the authorities to “do their job” and catch his killers ahead of a tribute match in honour of her husband earlier this month.

 

The pretty brunette, who has posted several grief-filled messages on her Instagram page over the past month, said: ““I miss everything about Arnold. We were always together and it’s really difficult for me and for our baby girl to live without him.

 

“Now all I can do is fight for our daughter and tell her she had a great dad and that he always lived in the hearts of the Honduran people.

 

“We know nothing concrete about the police investigation. We’re not being told anything. We’re waiting but we don’t know what happened.

 

“We ask the authorities to try to resolve this crime.

 

“I ask the President and the police authorities to do their job.

 

“The impunity that exists in Honduras is terrible. This happens to a lot of families and not just with Arnold.

 

“We need the violence to stop so we can have peace in this country.

 

“We hope the authorities catch the people who walk around killing others.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/arnold-peralta-police-hunting-killers-7183606

[SteveC 150]

Thanks for the info, good to see some movement on this, I had begun to doubt there would be any.

 

 

 

 

PS On another note - I'm unclear as to why the paper had to call his widow a "pretty brunette", can't imagine them describing a widower as "handsome brown-haired man" somehow.

Edited January 15, 2016 by SteveC

[BrahimHemdani 1]

One can only hope the perpetrators of this horrific murder are brought to justice.