'El Conejo' Murder: Notorious Gang Boss Killed in Venezuelan Prison
Teofilo Rodriguez Cazorla, known in Venezuela as the notorious crime boss "El Conejo," has been murdered outside a nightclub in the city of Porlamar, located on Margarita Island. He has just been released from prison in 2015, according to The Daily Mail.
El Conejo spent 12 years behind bars before he was ultimately set free. Despite his absence, however, prisoners in Venezuela still considered him as a visionary. In a lot of ways, El Conejo was the very personification of the social and political breakdown in the country.
During his incarceration at San Antonio prison, Cazorla was able to rise up the ranks of the prison system, establishing himself as a leader who was extremely capable. Innovative and an avid risk-taker, he was able to turn the very prison he was confined in into a very lucrative personal fiefdom.
In fact, one of the biggest ironies in Venezuelan history came about as a result of his leadership. Venezuela is a country that is constantly embroiled in chaos, with murders and other crimes taking place practically every day.
San Antonio prison, on the other hand, with a notorious crime boss leading the prisoners, featured a society that was far more orderly and better-governed. Due to his influence in the prison system of the country, El Conejo was even dubbed as the "Steve Jobs" of prison gang bosses, reported The Business Insider.
His operations within the prison were undoubtedly illegal, with most of them involving drugs and the like. What made his system quite unique, however, was the fact that he was known for fairly distributing his empire's earnings among the prisoners. Doing so got him the inmates' respect, and more importantly, their loyalty.
A prominent personality that was recognizable even by the layman in the country, Cazorla actually stated that he was considering a career in the nation's politics. After all, he was the one who, through a series of unorthodox yet undoubtedly effective strategies, was able to make Venezuela's prison system work for the inmates.
As for his previous underlings, the memory of the fallen leader was very much alive, as inmates from all over San Antonio took to the open fields of the prison and gave El Conejo a final, grandiose salute, in the form of hundreds of bullets from automatic weapons being fired in the air, according to The Daily Star.
Though news of the inmates' unusual send-off to the crime boss was met with criticism, it does exhibit just how influential El Conejo was to the Venezuelan prison system. And that is one thing, regardless of how the public might perceive it, that could never be denied.
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