The Shottas

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The Shottas are one of the leading criminal groups in Colombia’s port city of Buenaventura. The group gained notoriety due to its fierce and violent rivalry with the city’s other principal criminal group, the Spartans (Espartanos).

In 2022, both groups agreed to participate in President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, which seeks to establish an “urban peace laboratory” in Buenaventura as part of the greater aim to end the country’s decades-long conflict.

In this profile:

What is the story of the Shottas?

The Shottas trace their origins back to the late 1990s. The Calima Bloc (Bloque Calima), a paramilitary group belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC) arrived in Buenaventura hoping to expel the 30^th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), which had maintained a presence in the rural areas of the municipality since the late 1990s.

The paramilitaries maintained a predominantly urban presence and began recruiting young people from vulnerable neighborhoods, ramping up violence and extortion in the city.

After the AUC demobilized in 2006, some members of the Calima Bloc continued their criminal activities. Among these were the Bustamante family clan, which created the “Empresa,” a gang which would dominate the city’s criminal landscape for the next decade. The Bustamantes took control of drug trafficking routes through the city, grew extortion networks to finance the Empresa, and carried out kidnappings and disappearances.

The Bustamantes eventually abandoned the Empresa, creating a new group known as the “Local,” which was on the authorities’ radar by 2016. After several waves of arrests, Diego Bustamante, alias “Diego Optra,” took control of the Local in April 2019. However, his leadership proved to be controversial within the organization.

By December 2020, an internal rift led to the formation of the two gangs that vie for control of Buenaventura today: the Shottas and their rival, the Spartans.

Drug trafficking is the Shottas’ main activity and source of income. The Shottas and Spartans seek control over neighborhoods with coastal areas called estuaries, where rivers and backwaters meet the ocean, some of which house informal shipyards. Drug traffickers can easily launch go-fast boats from these areas without detection, eventually clandestinely loading drug shipments onto container ships at sea. The gangs guard their territory, send, and receive drug shipments, collect extortion fees, and ensure everything reaches its destination. 

Although the central pillar of their business is drug trafficking, the Shottas’ criminal activities also include extorting local businesses and kidnappings. Almost all businesses in Buenaventura pay an extortion fee to either the Shottas or the Spartans. 

Competition between the Spartans and their rival, the Shottas, has led both gangs to commit murders and other violent crimes. The gang violence and regular shootings have also led to an informal curfew, and civilians living in communities with a heavy gang presence rarely leave their homes past 6:00 to avoid attacks. Some schools have even been reported to change their schedule so students can get home before the curfew starts.

Locals rarely speak out for fear of reprisal by the Shottas, who actively track and punish those perceived to be working with authorities or rivals. The gang has made a common practice of dismembering dissidents in houses known as “casas de pique,” a practice that has existed for decades.

In October 2022, the two gangs agreed to a truce after entering negotiations with the government as part of the Total Peace plan. The pact led to 92 consecutive days without homicides in Buenaventura—a dramatic reduction in violence. The groups have since extended the agreement multiple times, and homicides have declined by 16% between June 2023 and June 2024.

Nonetheless, the decline in violence ended in January 2025 after 17 murders were recorded in January.  In February 2025, the Spartans left the dialogue table after the government put out an arrest warrant on the group’s spokesperson in the negotiations. Both gangs then declined to renew the truce, citing a lack of interest on the government’s part in meaningfully advancing negotiations.

Who are the leaders of the Shottas?

The leader of the Shottas is Diego Bustamante, alias “Diego Optra.” He became the leader after his uncle, Lugo Bustamente, was captured on April 27, 2019. Diego Optra first assumed the leadership of the Local, but internal divisions broke out as certain factions did not want him to lead the group, which eventually led to the splintering of the Local.  

After the fragmentation, Diego Optra led the Shottas before being captured in Rionegro, Antioquia, on October 9, 2019. He was released from custody in 2022 due to judicial irregularities in his trial, according to media reports. 

William Carvajal Obregón, alias “Jerónimo,” has served as the group’s spokesperson in negotiations between the Shottas, Spartans, and the government. 

As of October 2024, the Shottas had between 600 and 1,000 members, according to Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace.

Where do the Shottas operate?

The Shottas operate in the urban area of Buenaventura in the Valle del Cauca department, which houses Colombia’s largest Pacific commercial port. The city is split into two parts: the island and the mainland, referred to as the “continent.” The Shottas control several of the city’s communes located on the mainland part of the city, especially communes 9-12. 

The Shottas also maintain a smaller presence in tourist beach areas in the rural area north of Buenaventura, including Juanchaco, Ladrilleros, and La Barra, where they earn money from extortion and piracy targeting tourist boats, according to several local NGOs interviewed by InSight Crime in October 2024. 

Who are the Shottas’ friends and foes?

The Shottas’ principal enemies are the Spartans, despite sharing a criminal ancestry. After breaking away from the Local in 2020, the Shottas fought the Spartans for control of Buenaventura and continue to vie for control of extortion revenues, and cocaine smuggling routes. The territorial war between the rival drug gangs has led to the emergence of “invisible borders,” preventing civilians from moving freely between and within neighborhoods controlled by one gang or another.

Another enemy of the Shottas are the Chiquillos, an organized criminal group led by Robert Daniel Quintana, alias “Rober.” The Chiquillos are remnants of the Empresa, who have since aligned themselves with the Spartans, positioning themselves as rivals to the Shottas.  

On the other hand, the Shottas have a longstanding relationship with the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC) due to their paramilitary roots, underpinned mainly by drug trafficking financing. In 2021, when the government increased police security in Buenaventura to counter escalating drug trafficking levels, the AGC threatened to enter the municipality to defend the interests of the criminal groups. 

Since 2022, the Jaime Martínez Front of the Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central – EMC), a federation of ex-FARC dissident fronts, has expanded into the outskirts of urban Buenaventura, particularly Commune 12, a Shottas stronghold. As a result, the Jaime Martínez Front has allied with the Spartans in their fight against the Shottas in these areas.

In response, the Shottas have allied with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), which operates in the northern rural areas of Buenaventura but can access the urban zone through Commune 12. However, these alliances remain highly volatile, driven by shifting interests and short-term strategic gains. They can change—or dissolve—at any moment.

What is the outlook for the Shottas?

The Shottas officially announced their intention to participate in Petro’s Total Peace plan on October 2, 2022. This agreement was the first such accord between the Colombian government and an urban gang without a political ideology, and helped lead to the truce between the gangs, resulting in a large drop in the city’s homicide rate.

But the truce between the Spartans and the Shottas was also strategically advantageous for both groups. In the absence of attacks or confrontations with the Spartans, the Shottas consolidated their control over communes and more seamlessly carried out their criminal activities.

With less violence in the city, larger criminal groups and drug trafficking networks seem to have become more willing to once again use urban Buenaventura as a reliable drug trafficking route, knowing that a lack of attacks between the gangs makes robbery of drug shipments less likely. These networks employ the Shottas and Spartans to safeguard shipments and use the neighborhood under their control to move drugs, solidifying drug trafficking as the top revenue source for both groups. 

The chance for a permanent reduction in violence through a comprehensive demobilization agreement remains low. After the gangs decided to leave the negotiating table in February 2025, allowing their ceasefire to expire without extension, higher levels of violence could return to the city.