Espat - police allege - is a central player in an island drug war that is raging in the San Pedro underworld- where activity is high because, once again, it appears the cartels have shifted their MO - from using planes to ferry cocaine, to using boats.
And, it seems murder victim Delmer Rodriguez had come up on a big haul, which police say led to him being targeted just after midnight on Monday morning.
Jules Vasquez looked at a Tiktok video of his that has been raising eyebrows in law enforcement circles:
This Tik Tok video by Delmer Rodriguez appears to show cocaine bricks floating in the sea - but the dimensions are all wrong and his family tells us those are actually not cocaine but empty fuel containers.
But, for sure San Pedro is flush with the proceeds of wet drops - and Delmer Rodriguez was in the thick of the tangle:
Jorge Aldana, Uncle of Deceased
"My nephew was no innocent person and I'll be the first person to admit that at some point they were involved in some level of illicit activities and he tried to move away from that level of activity in fact he had been cooperating with police over the past year. He has cooperated with police as recent as Friday when he received threats by the same people now that are being sought by police that he was going to be killed. He tried to cooperate as much as possible with police in different levels of investigation and so I believe the break away, there have been several theories floating around, one of them he had sought to give police some level of information that was incriminating to them and so it was time to get rid of who knows a lot, right."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"As you would know that he, one of the deceased persons was a close affiliate of Christian Espat. And apparently after drugs were found, they there was a division between them, due to the fact that what we are hearing that there was not an equitable share of the drugs. And based on that, he was targeted by the Espat's."
This is one of the suspects, Michael Brown on the seas with his associates - police say the vast sea is now the preferred mode of transport for drugs:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"While we are into seeing a lot of plane landings or planes coming, we can't think that is an indication that drugs is not passing. The maritime domain is now the choice of these drugs traffickers and that's the reason why we are seeing these wet drops."
