Youngsters gunned down in Medellín

Four young men including a 15-year-old were reported shot to death near a football pitch in Medellín, north-western Colombia, late on 1 April, though authorities were not yet sure why, the Medellín paper El Colombiano reported on 3 April. Unnamed witnesses reportedly told police that gunmen arrived and asked the men if they were selling drugs, and shot them with "automatic weapons" when given a negative response. A security official reportedly said the boys did not have criminal records but were reputed to have bought drugs at the spot. A policeman was separately shot dead in the district of Andes south of Medellín on 2 April when suspects sought to prevent policemen searching a property for arms, El Colombiano reported. A father and two sons were arrested over the shooting. Police also arrested at an unspecified date in the district of Necoclí on Colombia's north-western coast, a man identified as one of the regional bosses of the criminal gang Los Rastrojos. The suspect, dubbed el Pantera, was thought to be a head of the Rastrojos in the southern department of Nariño and to have fled to Necoclí from the district of Barbacoas in Nariño, El Colombiano reported on 3 April. Police suspected that the detainee was, while in hiding, busy networking with local criminals, El Colombiano observed.