They are Bryan, Kevin and Jason Faddoul from Venezuela, and this is their story. [Music] [CARACAS, VENEZUELA] This is one of those jaw-dropping cases that could easily be part of a Netflix documentary, given the amount of twists the story takes, if they haven't already a documentary, at least I did not see any. [THE SCENE OF THE CRIME] Let's go to February 23, 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela.
A year that for Venezuela was the last stage of growth, before facing a terrible economic crisis. What's more, in those years unemployment in Venezuela had dropped by 20%. But since this is not a political channel, and I am not an expert on this, I do not want to be ignorant.
So, what we can say based on the articles we have seen is that Venezuela in 2006 was regularly doing well or quite well, at least economically. You tell me below in the comments, how was Venezuela in 2006, to know through the people who lived there during that time. On that date, a family of Lebanese origin was the victim of an event that would be quite controversial over the years.
The Faddoul family had a good financial situation, they lived in the Vista Alegre neighborhood, which is one of the best neighborhoods in Caracas. That morning the three children of this family, Brian, 17, Kevin, 13, and Jason, 12, had gotten up early, like every day of the week, because they had to go to school. So, they put on their school uniforms, had breakfast, said goodbye to their parents, got into the vehicle, driven by the family's driver, named Miguel Rivas, and left for school, around 6:30 AM.
It is important to mention that the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Valle is a renowned private institution, and is located in this same neighborhood, where this family lived. and we can calculate that it was approximately five minutes away, or less, from the Faddoul residence. This is when this story begins to unfold.
According to reports, the children never made it to school, and there was no sign of the driver either. That is to say, that in those less than five minutes, which we had mentioned on the way, from home to school, something would have happened to them. Usually Miguel, the driver, would drop them off at the school, and then return to the residence.
But sometimes, Miguel was in charge of doing work for companies of the father of the family or carried out orders. So, the fact that Miguel had not returned that morning was not worrisome. When the time came for the boys to return from school, that's when the parents began to worry, first, they couldn't get in touch with the driver, and when they called the school, they confirmed that the boys had not arrived that morning.
So, the parents called the police, they officially reported these disappearances, and this started an investigation, to find out what had happened, with the Faddoul children, and also with the driver, who was also a trusted man, who many years ago worked with the family. And also, he was a kind of bodyguard for the boys, according to what we read. He had grown very fond of them, and even lived in an apartment upstairs, in one of his father's businesses.
In other words, this man, the driver, was very close to this family, he was very dear to them, and he appreciated the Faddoul family very much. THE INVESTIGATION [Music] The next day Hanna Fadul, which is the name of the boys' father, received a call at her residence. According to him, the man who was calling had a Colombian accent.
He had assured that he had kidnapped the children and the driver. This man had also demanded payment of $4. 5 million dollars, in exchange for the release of the children and also the driver.
In response, the father quickly told this person that they did not have that amount. The kidnapper then told him that he did not believe him, since Faddoul owned seven companies, a luxurious house, a boat, and in general had a luxurious life. The man with a Colombian accent cut off this communication telling the father of the family that they were waiting for that money, to free the boys and the driver, and that they were not going to negotiate that amount.
From that call and the days that followed, the Faddoul family did everything possible to raise that total amount. They obviously reported this call to the authorities, mentioning that they were obviously concerned about the well-being of the children. But especially from Kevin, the 13-year-old son, because he had physical problems, due to cerebral palsy, and needed constant attention, which is why it was essential that progress with the investigation be made, and they could recover their children.
That same day, when it became known nationwide about the disappearance of the children and the driver, neighbors reported that they had seen a strange situation, they mentioned that on the morning of February 23, 2006, there was a police control in that zone. According to the versions of these witnesses, they said that these policemen were stopping several vehicles, so it seemed like a normal control. One of the witnesses mentioned seeing a Toyota stopped, this vehicle let go, and then they stopped the Faddouls' truck, with the driver driving and the Faddoul brothers, inside this vehicle in their uniforms, when they were on their way to school.
In other words, this would have happened between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning. As the neighbors thought that it was a normal police control, they did not pay too much attention to all the details. So, they did not see the moment when the truck had disappeared, with the boys and the driver.
In other words, at that exact moment there were no witnesses, it was not known at that moment if it was these policemen, if these policemen were involved, or if something had happened afterwards. But obviously this situation was suspicious because there was this police checkpoint right on the morning of the disappearance and the children had not arrived at school. In addition to talking about the distances, there were not even five minutes between the residence and the school.
Therefore this police control was suspicious, it could not be a simple coincidence. So the investigation took the account of these witnesses very seriously, and they began to look for whether there really was a police checkpoint in that area that morning, because all of this is recorded, documented. When the prosecutor's office inquired about police activities in that area around 6:30 to 7 in the morning, they confirmed that there was no police control.
Therefore, it was assumed that perhaps it was a criminal group that posed as officers, and that when they saw the Faddouls' truck, they carried out the kidnapping, which also gave indications that it was not a random event. , but they knew about the money of this family, and they had been the target, of this false police barrier. What began as a potential mysterious disappearance, became a fact, with too many ingredients, which made the case constantly and massively reported in the media .
The Faddoul family refused to speak, with the media, because they were afraid of the safety of their children, because any detail that would anger the criminals could end the lives of the three boys, that was the truth. Hanna Faddoul, the father, is originally from Lebanon, a country with a complicated and turbulent political situation, in Arabic Hanna means John in English, so many knew this man, by that name, as John. In 1968 John was just one year old, when his family moved to Canada, where he obtained citizenship, but later in his life, saw Venezuela as a prosperous country to move to.
When he was already living in Venezuela, it was when he met Gladys Diab, who also came from a family of Lebanese origin, they fell in love and soon after they were married. John had been instilled in the culture of work, he built his own shops, some of these were selling shoes, with super cheap prices, for the middle and lower class of Venezuela. Over time, John saw the fruits of his efforts, and managed to acquire his first residence in the country.
In addition, he began to become more and more known, as an important businessman in the city. At the end of the 80s, John and Gladys decided that it was time to start a family, and so their three children did. First Brian, then Kevin and Jason, as we mentioned in the case of Kevin's middle child, he suffered from cerebral palsy, which limited his movements on the right side, but despite this, everyone saw Kevin as a happy child.
and positive. Obviously it should be mentioned that this family had enough money to take care of the expenses that this situation entails. In the first years, when the boys were already born, they continued in Venezuela, until they began to see that the country was becoming more and more dangerous, with assaults and kidnappings.
So they went to Canada, where they stayed for a while, until their children told them that they were not happy there, and wanted to return to Venezuela, where they already had several friends. The parents felt that Canada was not a place for them either, so shortly after they returned to Terrazas de Bellavista in Vista Alegre, where they bought a fairly large residence. Until then, it was known about this case that the police barrier, or at least it was analyzed, that the police barrier had been false, that the criminals had kidnapped the children and also the driver.
And then there was that first phone call, requesting $4. 5 million, which the family kept raising, with businesses, friends, donations, and selling whatever they could. In the following week they received more calls from the kidnappers, demanding the money.
John Faddoul told them that they were doing everything possible to raise that enormous amount. But also in one of these calls, he had demanded that they show that the boys were still alive, that they show proof of life. It was so that two weeks later they notified the family that they would leave a video, that they had to look for a specific place.
They had not yet mentioned what that place was, so that the authorities were not inspecting, or seeing that area when they left the video. When the criminals finally left the video, they gave the father directions to go to the place. In the video, the eldest of the brothers, John Bryan, asked his parents to pay the sum of money that his captors demanded.
Also in this recording, the eldest son had told them to try to do it as quickly as possible because they were suffering. And in this recording, in addition, the other children were also shown, who were alive. But they had obvious signs of fatigue, due to the days they had been in captivity, at that point a hypothesis was being handled, within the investigation, that some members of the police could be linked, and this was analyzed because according to the witnesses, they had seen this police barrier, with an official police car, or that seemed official, and that the uniforms were also very real, they seemed original, so for this reason, this hypothesis was reached, that it could have been someone with contacts, or someone within the police .
We also have to say that they did not believe it was a criminal organization, within the police, but rather a criminal organization, with some members of the police , which was also quite worrying. On March 22, 2006, the mother of the kidnapped boys, named Gladys, did something that would later be highly questioned. She had written a letter, in the media, and this was to appeal to the humanity of the criminals.
In this letter she had mentioned the damage that this kidnapping had caused to the family, and also to Venezuelan society in general. He also talked about God, about his religion. In one part she said that as a mother, she forgave them and also asked the kidnappers to think of their own families.
He also asked for mercy for the children, for Brian, Kevin and Jason as well as the family driver, and in one part of the letter, which was the most questioned to the mother, because obviously, she was the one who wrote these texts Knowing that it was getting very difficult for them to raise the 4. 5 million dollars, she mentioned that she refused to negotiate with these kidnappers because her children were priceless. And also, in another place, he had written that if the kidnappers were going to do something, that is, they were going to kill them, that they should do it without causing them pain, while they slept.
This was highly questioned at the time, because only a month had passed since the kidnappings, and she was also criticized by society, because practically in this letter, she accepted the fate of the children and the driver. But we also have to put ourselves in the mother's place. In all the calls they had made, the kidnappers refused to negotiate that amount, which was impossible to get, because the Faddouls had a lot of money, but they didn't have that amount.
And they had companies, luxuries, and mansions, as we mentioned before, but the assets they had did not add up to $4. 5 million dollars, so if we put ourselves in the position of the mother, who saw it as impossible to raise that money, that the kidnappers would not They wanted to negotiate, that's a bit more understandable, because I would have written that. In the same way, I understand the criticism, obviously, of this letter, because this text put the children at risk, it was like confirming that they were not going to reach that amount, instead of telling them, we are doing everything possible, we are going to reach the amount, be patient, give us time.
It was like confirming, we are not going to reach that amount. So, he put the lives of the children and the driver at risk . All this, all the news that was coming out, about this letter, made Venezuelan society rise up, there were multiple demonstrations, marches and vigils in the family's neighborhood, at the boys' school, and in various parts of Venezuela.
At the end of March, it was when something new became known about these kidnappings. A new call came to the Faddoul residence, the kidnappers had assured that they would accept approximately $350,000 dollars, since the family at that time had barely reached about $200,000 dollars, in any case they made an effort to collect, which It was missing to reach that last amount, which they had requested, and they notified the criminals that they were ready, to make the delivery. The kidnappers in this last call, mentioned that they had to leave the briefcase, with the tickets at an agreed point.
Gladys's brother, the minors' uncle, was in charge of taking the briefcase to the area they had requested. He arrived at the place, left the money and withdrew. Obviously by that time, the authorities knew all this information, they were collaborating in these negotiations.
We do not know if part of the money was handed over by the authorities, because that usually happens and they were in the area, secretly watching this process, from when the uncle left the briefcase, and waiting for one of the criminals to grab the money. . But the hours passed, time passed, and no one looked for that briefcase.
That is when it was analyzed that either the criminals had seen police officers in the area, or someone was actually involved in the investigation, which could have been another police officer, or several police officers, who knew about this negotiation, who knew about the money, and that they also knew that the police were going to be in that area. After this failed delivery, the kidnappers called the family again, in this case Gladys, the mother, was the one who answered the phone. She told them that she refused to negotiate, because her religion did not allow her, since her children were priceless.
It was thus that the kidnapper cut off the call, and it was the last communication, of the criminals with the family. Just a few days later, the bodies would be discovered. On April 4, 2006 at 4 in the afternoon, a farmer had found four bodies in a vacant lot in El Lechosal, which is 35 kilometers from Caracas.
Soon after, the authorities confirmed that it was the Faddoul brothers and the family driver. All had bullet wounds to the head, and with obvious signs of torture. The autopsy also determined that the victims had been executed between 48 and 72 hours ago, before these bodies were found, and this was consistent with the days of the last call.
Which also meant that everyone was alive, until the last moment of the negotiations. Here there was not only a destroyed family, which were the Faddouls, but also the family of Miguel Rivas, the driver, he had a wife and two small children, the youngest being only six months old. Miguel Rivas was a man who worked to give the best to his family, who was loved by the Faddouls, and who was so fond of the Faddoul children that he considered them his nephews.
Miguel's wife received compensation of about $5,000 dollars. In addition to having been hired, by the Faddoul family, as a secretary, to have the means to support their children. And this is a complex situation, in every sense, because we all know that the authorities refuse to negotiate with kidnappers, for obvious reasons.
If the kidnappers come to a negotiation, and they are released. then they can kidnap, to more people in the future. Therefore, for the authorities, the main objective is to capture them.
I imagine that for everyone, it is a very difficult situation. For the authorities, because they still want to save the victims, but they don't want the criminals to go free, from what we mentioned, but there is also the issue of the family, that is, how is this handled? If I were in that situation, I think I would do everything the kidnappers told me, without involving the police, because I would want things to be done well so that my family can come back with me.
But, I just imagine that it must be a very difficult situation, very complex. Now with the four bodies, the funerals were held, and it was only waiting for the authorities to give some response, some progress, with this investigation. At that time, the investigators had key information about this fact, John Faddoul, the father of the children, had mentioned that he had received extortion calls weeks before the kidnappings, and in this way they were able to find the person responsible.
, of these extortion calls, which the father had received, weeks before the kidnappings. And it was a man named Luis Eduardo Contreras, he was arrested on April 19, 2006, which was 15 days after the discovery of the bodies. Luis Eduardo Contreras was an officer of the National Integrated Customs and Tax Administration Service, he was arrested on charges of extortion.
And shortly after, he was pointed out as the one who provided the kidnappers with the economic data of the Faddouls. Thanks to this link, 14 more people were arrested, one of them was the former officer of the Metropolitan Police, Miguel Vuelvas Rentería, who confessed that he had coordinated the kidnapping, selected the policemen who were going to participate, and recorded the hours that the family chauffeur had every morning. This person also gave other names, of others involved, such as Yeiber Miller García Peroza, and Alexis Giuliano Febres Hernández.
The first was the one who shot to kill, the three brothers. While the second did the same with the driver, with Miguel Rivas. A woman had also been mentioned, as an accomplice, she was Julia Maibelis Charte Tovar, but when they began to question her, she assured that she had also been kidnapped, and that they had kidnapped her precisely, to take care of the minors.
She was the one who had to take care of them, feed them. But she assured that, like the brothers and the driver, she had also been a victim of this fact. His testimony also helped more names within this criminal group to be identified.
According to reports, to date, the police have not been able to identify the Colombian citizen who participated in the planning of the kidnapping of the Faddoul brothers, and it could also be a Venezuelan kidnapper, or one of the involved, who faked the Colombian accent. But according to the investigation, that accent seemed to come from a person who was actually from Colombia. As the perpetrators of the crime fell, the parents sold their belongings, left Vista Alegre, and moved to Lebanon.
But they never stopped being pending, on the news of the case. [THE RESOLUTION] On July 18, 2015, almost a decade after this crime, a new person was arrested, as part of the plan to kidnap minors, It was about León Orlando Gandica Reina, better known as "El Gordo Lennon", who was accused of kidnapping and murder. But on August 7 of that year, "Fat Lennon" was strangled to death, suspiciously by his cellmates.
Thus without being able to know if there were more involved, since his statement was going to be very important. In total, 20 people were arrested, and 13 of them received the maximum sentence of 30 years, for their participation in the kidnapping and murder of the Faddoul brothers and the driver Miguel Rivas. And furthermore, after all this, it became known that at least four of these people were members of the Metropolitan Police.
So the idea or the analysis, or the hypothesis that was handled, practically from the beginning, was real, there were people from the police involved in this group of criminals. There are too many hypotheses in this case, one of them says that the intellectual author would have been a brigadier general, named Noel Martínez Rivero, who had been denounced by a former Venezuelan magistrate. The complaint never came to anything, and this person, this general, was later promoted in his position, without ever being investigated.
There are other hypotheses that ensure that people with a lot of power in the government were involved, and that they were part of the plan in some way, and that is why the latter arrested, in 2015, had been murdered in prison, because perhaps he I was going to give more names, which could be powerful people. There are other hypotheses that ensure that certain people who worked within John Faddoul's companies could have been involved, because they were the ones who had access to certain money documents, knew about the family's movements, and had key data, in order to carry out this kidnapping, but these hypotheses were either not well investigated, or they came to nothing. Without a doubt, the case of the Faddoul brothers and Miguel Rivas is a story that we can say has been resolved because in part they arrested many people, but we can also say that possibly those who were arrested are the tip of an iceberg.
that it would involve something much bigger, that may never come to light.
