PANAMA CITY – Panamanian boxer Vicente Mosquera, the former world superfeatherweight champion, was arrested after giving a statement about a homicide in which he is a suspect.
Mosquera, known as “El Loco,” was placed under police custody Sept. 6 along with another Panamanian boxer, José Arboleda, while an investigation is carried out, according to the police.
The suspects, who were supposedly together at the time of the murder, spoke to prosecutors for more than six hours in the presence of their attorneys. Their whereabouts during the wee hours on Sept. 3, when the shooting death of Antonio Trejos occurred, have not yet been established.
Prosecutor Samuel Quintero said he brought murder charges against Mosquera because “everything points to him” as the one who fired the shots that killed Trejos. The lawyer for the boxer, Cristobal Arboleda, said it is regrettable that he had to learn of the charges against Mosquera through the media, adding that this suggested the prosecutor was acting “in a hasty and subjective way.”
Trejos died of a gunshot wound to the chest after a heated argument at a dance club in the Pacific town of Puerto Caimito.
The Panamanian press reported this week that the former champion has been involved in several incidents over the past few years.
Mosquera on Aug. 6 lost his World Boxing Association super-featherweight title – which he had held for just over a year –when he was defeated by Venezuela’s Edwin Valero in a fight in Panama City.
