Irishman strangled with bubble wrap and dumped naked in Colombian river was ‘killed over missing money’ – as police still unsure which crime gang killed him
Sources have told how Joe 'Packie' Moore was lured to Colombia from his home in Spain to discuss money which had gone missing from his associates
THE Irishman murdered in Colombia was killed over “missing money”, it is understood.
Joe ‘Packie’ Moore, 55, on May 2.
He was naked, face down in the river, with his hands and legs bound. Shrink-wrap had been plastered around his head.
A post mortem showed the father-of-three had been asphyxiated, though Moore was only identified a month later via tattoos on his back and shoulder.
Sources have told how Moore was lured to Colombia from his home in Spain to discuss money which had gone missing from his associates — and ended up dead.
The extent of Moore’s involvement in the matter is still under investigation, but he paid the ultimate price.
The Irish Sun has already and sent a text to a pal at home telling him he feared for his life days before he was killed.
At that point, his family back in Ballyfermot, , were unaware he was even in South America and desperately tried to contact him.
However, the popular former milkman could not be reached and the next news the family received was when his body was identified at the start of June.
Sources close to the case have revealed Colombian police remain unsure exactly which organised crime gang killed him because of the fractured nature of Medellin’s gangland scene.
Greater Medellin has a population of around two million and was once ruled with an iron fist by the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
However, it is now home to over 350 separate crime gangs.
The area remains a major centre of cocaine production, which soared by a record 34 per cent in Colombia in 2016, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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While the overall murder rate has fallen, deadly feuds between gangs remain common.
Bodies covered in shrink-wrap first began appearing on the streets of Medellin in 2010.
Since then, dozens have been dumped in this manner.