Church shooting linked to drug cartel
Jailed gang member was husband and father of the two women remembered at Catholic Mass for dead
A convicted member of the Colombian Cali drug cartel was the husband and father of two women whose memorial service was targeted by a drive-by gunman. A seven-year-old girl is fighting for her life with critical injuries after being hit by shotgun pellets fired from a black Toyota. Another girl, aged 12, was also hit along with four women, including a 48-year-old who sustained “potentially life-changing injuries”, police said.
A CONVICTED member of the Colombian Cali drug cartel was the husband and father of two women whose memorial service was targeted by a drive-by gunman.
A seven-year-old girl is fighting for her life with critical injuries after being hit by shotgun pellets fired from a black Toyota.
Another girl, aged 12, was also hit along with four women, including a 48-year-old who sustained “potentially life-changing injuries”, police said.
The shooting took place outside a Roman Catholic church 300 yards from Euston station, central London, on Saturday afternoon.
The service was being held for Fresia Calderon, 50, who died from a blood clot in November after arriving at Heathrow on a flight from Colombia, and her daughter Sara Sanchez, 20, who died three weeks later from terminal leukaemia having refused further treatment after her mother’s sudden death.
It emerged yesterday that Fresia’s former husband was jailed in the UK for his role in helping to launder money for a London drugs gang linked to the notorious Colombian Cali cartel.
Carlos Arturo Sanchez-coronado was the first man to be extradited from Colombia to the UK where he was jailed in 2009 for his part as the gang’s “money deliverer”. He admitted three charges linked to money laundering and fake documents.
When police raided the homes of the ringleaders in north-west London, they discovered millions of pounds in cash, and cocaine and marijuana with a street value of £100million.
The gang’s share of the UK drugs market was so great that when it was dismantled, the price of cocaine in the country rose by 50 per cent.
Mr Sanchez-coronado, who was born in Cali, served time in a UK jail before moving back to South America and had been living in Santiago, the capital of Chile.
It is understood he passed away last year at the age of 56 but it is inevitable that there will be speculation that the memorial service might was targeted as a consequence of Mr Sanchez-coronado’s drug gang links.
The two women had visited Mr Sanchez-coronado’s family in Colombia in the autumn and Ms Calderon, who was deeply religious, had collapsed on her return to the UK.
She moved to London in 1993 and married Mr Sanchez-coronado in 2001.
‘People ran back into the church, so scared they had to stay a while to pluck up courage to go out again’
Police are keeping an open mind as to the motive for the drive-by shooting. The service at St Aloysius church had attracted a large number of mourners, which makes it difficult for police to be certain who was the intended victim.
Reporters suggest it was a revenge attack targeting a guest.
The Metropolitan Police disclosed yesterday that the shots were fired from a black Toyota C-HR at about 1.30pm. It is understood the car’s movements were captured on CCTV although it was unclear last night if the vehicle had been found. Officers also disclosed that a shotgun was used.
Supt Jack Rowlands said: “Four women, aged 21, 41, 48 and 54, were taken to central London hospitals.
“Thankfully their injuries were assessed as non-life threatening. The 48-year-old woman has sustained potentially life-changing injuries. Two children were also injured. A 12-yearold girl sustained a leg injury and was treated at hospital ... she is expected to make a full recovery,” he said. “A sevenyear-old girl was more seriously injured. She remains in hospital in a stable but life-threatening condition.”
Supt Rowlands added that the Toyota was likely to have been a 2019 model, or similar.
The shots sent mourners running and screaming, with many of them sheltering inside the church.
A video, obtained by the news website Mylondon, shows scenes of chaos in the aftermath with one terrified mourner shouting: “We need to get out.”
Father Jeremy Trood, who conducted the Requiem Mass for the mother and daughter, said: “I was inside the church.
“I heard the bang and people ran back into the church. They knew something had happened outside.
“They were very scared. People sheltered in the church until the police said they could leave.
“But some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.”