A forensic expert, three police officers and a music impresario have been jailed for covering up the 2015 murder of Venezuelan rapper Cancerbero.
Cancerbero, who was named the best Spanish-language rapper by Rolling Stone magazine, was shot dead by his manager, Natalia Amistica.
Amstica and her brother then threw her body from the 10th floor window.
Five people sentenced Tuesday were found guilty of helping the siblings create a crime scene so Cancerbarrow’s murder was ruled a suicide.
They have been sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison.
Natalia Amstica and her brother Guillermo were already sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder in February.
On January 19, 2015, the death of Cancerbero, whose real name was Taron Gonzalez, shocked the Venezuelan rap scene.
It was ruled at the time that the 26-year-old star stabbed her friend Carlos Molnar to death before jumping from the window.
But in December 2023, Natalia Améstica confessed to the stabbing. Both Molnar and Canserbero.
In a video statement released last year by Venezuela’s attorney general, he recounted what happened that night.
Natalia Améstica claims that she became angry with the rapper when she learned that Canserbero no longer wanted her as his manager.
She described how Cancerbero came to her apartment in Marrakesh, Venezuela on January 19, 2015.
She was accompanied by her friend Carlos Molnar, who was also Natalia Amstica’s long-term boyfriend.
“The opportunity arose for them to make tea,” he explained in the video, adding that it spiked their drink with a powerful tranquilizer.
When her drug partner Carlos Molnar entered the kitchen, he stabbed her in the neck, back and arm.
Canserbero witnesses Améstica’s attack on her boyfriend but, under the influence of Améstica’s drugs, collapses on the couch.
Améstica then stabbed him twice.
“In desperation, I then called my brother Guillermo to help me resolve the situation,” she said in the video confession.
His brother arrived with three officers from the Venezuelan intelligence agency Ceban, who have now been convicted.
According to Natalia Amstica, “They ended up setting up the scene in such a way as to make it look like a murder-suicide.”
She said the officers “stabbed Carlos. [Molnar] A few more times, my brother Guillermo stabbed him four times. The rest, Seban officials did.”
“We were then told how to throw him out the window to complete the murder-suicide scene,” he said in his confession.
His brother Guillermo said a forensic detective who arrived at the scene became suspicious, remarking that it had been “manipulated”.
According to Guillermo Améstica, the forensic expert demanded a $10,000 (£7,880) bribe to help the siblings cover up the crime and to show that Canserbero had attacked Molnar before jumping from the window.
The fifth person convicted on Tuesday is Marcos Pratolongo, a music impresario who provided security at some of Cancerberu’s concerts.
At the time of his arrest, Venezuela’s attorney general said that Pratolongo had the keys to Cancerbero’s apartment, where key evidence had disappeared.
The attorney general posted on social media on Tuesday that Pratolongo had been found guilty of complicity in Cancerbero’s murder, but did not provide further details of his role in the crime.