An intelligence expert, three police officers and a musician have been arrested for covering up the murder of Venezuelan rapper Canserbero in 2015.
Canserbero, who was named the best Spanish-language rapper by Rolling Stone magazine, was drugged and stabbed to death by his manager, Natalia Améstica.
Améstica and her brother then threw her body out of the 10th floor window.
The five people who were sentenced on Tuesday were found guilty of helping the brothers commit a crime, so the killing of Canserbero was seen as a suicide.
They were sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison.
Natalia Améstica and her brother Guillermo were sentenced to 25 years in prison in February for murder.
The death of 19 January 2015 of Canserbero, whose real name was Tirone González, shocked the Venezuelan rap scene.
At that time it was decided that the 26-year-old star killed his friend Carlos Molnar in a knife fight before jumping out of the window.
But in December 2023, Natalia Améstica admitted to the stabbing both Molnar and Canserbero.
In a video statement released by Venezuela’s attorney general last year, he recounts what happened that night.
Natalia Améstica says she was angry with the rapper after hearing that Canserbero no longer wanted her as her manager.
He described how Canserbero came to his house in the Venezuelan city of Maracay on January 19, 2015.
He was accompanied by his friend Carlos Molnar, who was also Natalia Améstica’s long-term boyfriend.
“The opportunity arose for me to make tea for them,” he explained in the video, adding that he sipped their drink with a strong sweetener.
When her drug addict partner Carlos Molnar entered the kitchen, he stabbed her in the neck, back and arm.
Canserbero witnessed Améstica’s attack on her boyfriend but, under the influence of the drugs that Améstica slipped on him, he collapsed on the couch.
Améstica then proceeded to stab him twice.
“I lost hope, then I called my brother Guillermo to help me solve this situation,” he said in the confessional video.
His brother came with three officers of the intelligence service in Venezuela, Sebin, who have now been sentenced.
“They finished arranging the crime scene in such a way that it looks like someone killed himself,” according to Natalia Améstica.
He said the police “stabbed Carlos.” [Molnar] a few more times, my brother Guillermo stabbed him four times. Others, Sebin officials do.”
“Then we were told how we are going to get him out of the window in order to complete this suicide incident,” he said when he confessed to the crime.
His brother Guillermo said that the investigator who arrived at the scene was suspicious, and said that it seemed as if “it was forgotten”.
According to Guillermo Améstica, the intelligence expert asked for a $10,000 (£7,880) bribe to help the siblings cover up the crime and make it look like Canserbero attacked Molnar before jumping out of the window.
The fifth man sentenced on Tuesday is Marcos Pratolongo, a music star who provides security for some of Canserbero’s concerts.
At the time of his arrest, Venezuela’s attorney general said Pratolongo was in possession of the keys to Canserbero’s house, from which important evidence disappeared.
The attorney general wrote on social media on Tuesday that Pratolongo was found guilty of involvement in Canserbero’s murder but did not provide any further details about his role in the crime.