Euston shooting: Drive-by attack at funeral may have links to Colombian drug cartel

A convicted member of the Colombian Cali drug cartel was the husband and father of two women whose memorial service was targeted by a drive-by gunman.

A seven-year-old girl was left fighting for her life with critical injuries after being hit by shotgun pellets fired from a black Toyota. A girl aged 12 was also hit along with four women, including a 48-year-old who sustained “potentially life-changing injuries”.

The shooting took place outside a Roman Catholic church just 300 yards from Euston station in central London on Saturday afternoon. The service was being held for Fresia Calderon, 50, who died from a blood clot in November after arriving at Heathrow on a flight from Colombia, and her daughter Sara Sanchez, 20, who died three weeks later from terminal leukaemia having refused further treatment following her mother’s sudden death.

It emerged yesterday that Fresia Calderon’s former husband was jailed in the UK for his role in helping to launder money for a London drugs gang linked to the notorious Colombian Cali cartel. Carlos Arturo Sanchez-Coronado earned notoriety as the first man ever to be extradited from Colombia to the UK where he was jailed in 2009 for his part as the gang’s “money deliverer” after he pleaded guilty to three charges linked to money laundering and fake documents. 

When police raided the homes of the ringleaders in north-west London they discovered millions of pounds in cash, and cocaine and marijuana with a street value of £100 million. The organisation’s share of the UK drugs market was so great that when it was dismantled, the price of cocaine in the country rose by 50 per cent.

Mr Sanchez-Coronado, who was born in Cali, served time in a UK jail before moving back to South America and had been living in the Chilean capital of Santiago. It is understood he passed away last year at the age of 56. 

Scotland Yard has refused to discuss any motive for the drive-by shooting. But inevitably there will be speculation that the memorial service might have been targeted as a consequence of Mr Sanchez-Coronado’s connections to a drugs gang in turn linked to a once ruthless Colombian cartel. The two women had visited Mr Sanchez-Coronado’s family in Colombia in the autumn and Ms Calderon, who was deeply religious, had collapsed on her return to the UK. She moved to London in 1993 and married Mr Sanchez-Coronado in 2001.

Police are keeping an open mind as to the motive and point out that the service at St Aloysius Church had attracted a large number of mourners. That makes it difficult for police to be certain whom was the intended victim of the shooting. Reporters suggest the gunman was targeting a guest as part of a revenge attack.

The Metropolitan Police disclosed yesterday that the shots were fired from a black Toyota C-HR at around 1.30pm before it drove off. It is understood the car’s movements were captured on CCTV although it was unclear last night if the vehicle had been found by police.

Officers also disclosed that a shotgun was used in the attack.

Supt Jack Rowlands said officers “found multiple people with injuries caused by pellets from a shotgun”.

He added: “Four women, aged 21, 41, 48 and 54, were taken to central London hospitals. Thankfully their injuries were assessed as non-life threatening. The 48-year-old woman has sustained potentially life-changing injuries.

“Two children were also injured. A 12-year-old girl sustained a leg injury. She was treated at hospital before being discharged [on Saturday] afternoon. She is expected to make a full recovery.

“A seven-year-old girl was more seriously injured. She remains in hospital in a stable but life-threatening condition, and our thoughts are with her and her family.”

Supt Rowlands added: “We believe the suspects discharged a shotgun from a moving vehicle, which was a black Toyota C-HR, likely a 2019 model or similar.”

The shots sent mourners running and screaming, with many of them sheltering inside the church, witnesses said. A video obtained by the news website MyLondon shows scenes of chaos in the aftermath with one terrified mourner shouting: “We need to get out.”

Father Jeremy Trood, who conducted the service, confirmed it was a requiem mass for mother and daughter. 

Father Trood said: “I was inside the church. I heard the bang and people ran back into the church. They knew something had happened outside.

“They were very scared, people sheltered in the church until the police said they can leave but some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.”