Mototaxi driver found decapitated on rural road in Aracataca, Colombia.

NEWS:

A 28-year-old mototaxi driver was found dead and decapitated on a rural road in Aracataca, Colombia, in a killing that police later linked, in preliminary investigative statements, to a territorial conflict between armed criminal groups operating in Magdalena.

The victim was identified in local reports as Jair Antonio Barragán Sanabria. His body was found on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in a rural area of Aracataca, in the department of Magdalena. Initial reports placed the discovery in the San Martín area, near the sector known as La Quesera, in the jurisdiction of Aracataca.

The video connected to the case shows the aftermath of the killing. The images show the victim’s body on a dirt road or rural track, with the head separated from the body and left nearby. The footage confirms the visible condition in which the remains were found, but it does not establish who carried out the killing, how many people were involved, the exact sequence of the attack, or the motive.

Police units went to the area after residents alerted authorities. According to the initial report, officers confirmed the presence of the body and found the severed head a short distance away. The case was treated as a homicide, and the body was taken for forensic examination.

Barragán was reported to have worked in several informal jobs, including mototaxi work. Local coverage described him as a resident of the area where the crime occurred. Early accounts said he may have been taken to the La Quesera sector before he was attacked, but that detail came from preliminary versions and was not presented as a final investigative conclusion.

The first public reports said authorities had not established a clear motive. They described the case as under investigation and did not identify suspects. Those reports said the victim had been attacked with extreme violence and that his head had been removed with a machete, but the identity of the attackers had not been confirmed.

A later update changed the investigative context. Police in Magdalena were cited as linking the killing to a confrontation between Los Pachencas, also known as Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada, and the Clan del Golfo, also referred to as the Ejército Gaitanista de Colombia. According to that later account, the conflict is tied to control of territory, drug trafficking and extortion in the area.

The police commander in Magdalena, Colonel Alexander Martín Eljaude, was quoted as saying that the early investigative work pointed to illegal armed groups operating in the region. That statement was presented as an investigative hypothesis, not as a court finding.

After the killing, the Gobernación del Magdalena reportedly held an extraordinary security council and offered a reward of up to 10 million Colombian pesos for information leading to those responsible. Security measures announced after the meeting included reinforced investigative work, more patrols and joint operations involving police and the army, especially along corridors between Aracataca and Fundación.

Authorities also said a special investigative team had been activated. That team was reported to include police intelligence, officers from the Aracataca Police Station, Carabineros and the Sijín criminal investigation unit. The stated objective was to collect evidence and identify the people behind the killing.

The Aracataca municipal administration also rejected the killing in a public statement quoted by local media. The administration said recent acts of violence had affected the community and called for security responses from authorities.

The confirmed facts are that Barragán was found dead and decapitated in a rural area of Aracataca, police handled the scene after being alerted by the community, and later investigative statements connected the homicide to a dispute between armed criminal groups in Magdalena. No suspect had been publicly identified in the reports reviewed.

The main unresolved points are who killed him, whether he was targeted because of his work as a mototaxi driver or for another reason, how he was taken to the rural area, and whether the killing was directly ordered by a criminal structure. Those points remained dependent on the police investigation and forensic work.

News story written by DarkGore.

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If you want to know more about this case, just visit the following URL: https://www.eluniversal.com.co/sucesos/2026/04/14/el-es-jair-barragan-el-joven-hallado-decapitado-en-una-trocha-era-mototaxista/