Shining Path Arrests in Peru

World Today

After a two-year drug trafficking and terrorism investigation, the Peruvian government arrested nearly 30 people linked to a Maoist rebels. The now largely defunct group, known as the the Shining Path, launched a bloody internal conflict in the 1980s and ’90s. CCTV’s Dan Collyns has more.

Shining Path Arrests in Peru

After a two-year drug trafficking and terrorism investigation, the Peruvian government arrested nearly 30 people linked to a Maoist rebels. The now largely defunct group, known as the the Shining Path, launched a bloody internal conflict in the 1980s and '90s. CCTV's Dan Collyns has more.

In a nationwide sweep, 28 suspects were seized across Peru. 

The government says all are Shining Path supporters allegedly financing armed groups and receiving funds from drug trafficking. 

Peru believes the group’s political wing, Movadef, is a front group trying to legitimize and revive the Shining Path. Movadef is calling for the release of Shining Path members jailed during Peru’s blooding internal conflict in the 1980s and ’90s. Those arrested in this recent sweep include key Movadef leader, Alfredo Crespo, who is a lawyer for jailed Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman. 

Prosecutors say the investigation began with the 2012 arrest of this man ‘Comrade Artemio’ – seen here in an exclusive CCTV interview – Prosecutors claim he was funding the group’s political wing with the profits from drug trafficking. 

Artemio – whose real name is Florindo Flores – commanded one of the rebel group’s last active cells in the Peruvian jungle. 

A truth and reconciliation commission found that about 70-thousand Peruvians died in two decades of violence which included human rights abuses on all sides. 

Peru’s interior minister says six wanted Movadef members remain at large.