Kidnapped millionaire frolicked in Lake Como along with his girlfriend
- Colin Armstrong, 78, was kidnapped from his house in Ecuador every week in the past
The British millionaire who was kidnapped in Ecuador is pictured in Lake Como along with his Colombian girlfriend final yr, because the police reveal the bomb vest she was made to put on by the crooks was pretend.
Former honorary British Consul Colin Armstrong OBE was snatched by 15 males wearing pretend police uniforms when he was kidnapped every week in the past, alongside along with his ‘romantic companion,’ Katherine Paolo Santos.
While the 78-year-old has now been launched safely, Ms Santos is claimed to have been quizzed by police about her alleged involvement within the millionaire’s kidnapping.
Photos taken in July final yr present Mr Armstrong and Ms Santos at Lake Como in Italy on the luxurious ‘historic and romantic’ Villa d’Este.
In the photographs, the pair are proven smiling and laughing collectively light-heartedly, with Mr Armstrong wearing black and white shorts.
His glamorous girlfriend is seen wearing a purple bikini and gold earrings, consuming what appears to be a cocktail by the pool.
The duo are seen taking it in turns to take photographs of one another, earlier than drying off with matching blue towels and holding arms as they stroll.
The Villa d’Este is a 5 star ‘opulent lodge’ which overlooks Lake Como – boasting of a pool, tennis courtroom and world-famous Italian Renaissance gardens.
Photos taken in July final yr present Mr Armstrong and Ms Santos at Lake Como in Italy on the luxurious ‘historic and romantic’ Villa d’Este
In the photographs, the pair are proven smiling and laughing collectively light-heartedly, with Mr Armstrong wearing black and white shorts as they take photographs of each other
His glamorous girlfriend is seen wearing a purple bikini and gold earrings as they maintain arms
The duo are seen taking it in turns to take photographs of one another, earlier than drying off with towels
Bundled into his personal black BMW at gunpoint, the millionaire businessman – previously often known as ‘Our Man in Guayaquil’ – was kidnapped final Saturday, together with Ms Santos, a Colombian mannequin and pole dancer.
Just hours later, Ms Santos reappeared at a gated property – believed to belong to Mr Armstrong’s son Nick – carrying what she claimed was a bomb vest which might blow up if a ransom wasn’t paid for Mr Armstrong to the gang behind his kidnapping.
But when bomb disposal officers in protecting gear eliminated the vest, they later revealed it to be a pretend.
On Tuesday night at round 11pm, three days after Ms Santos’ launch, Mr Armstrong was picked up by police who discovered him wandering alongside a essential street within the coastal province of Manabi, about 150 miles southwest of the capital, Quito.
But whereas the Policia Nacional del Ecuador have already made 9 arrests and confiscated an enormous haul of weapons, grenades, detonators and medicines, severe questions stay for investigating officers together with whether or not or not Mr Armstrong’s kidnappers had assist from somebody with insider information.
And who’s the mysterious Ms Santos who has been at Mr Armstrong’s aspect lately on condition that, simply 18 months in the past, Mr Armstrong was publicly paying tribute to his spouse Cecilia, whom he married 49 years in the past, at an occasion attended by lots of of his workers?
With an ex-local MP publicly implicating Santos within the crime, she is claimed to have been quizzed by police about her alleged involvement within the kidnapping plot.
Father-of-three Mr Armstrong, in the meantime, is claimed to be ‘protected and wholesome’ after police launched {a photograph} of him, smiling for the digicam in a police-issue baseball cap and long-sleeved t-shirt – outstanding, given all the things he has been via previously week.
The pair gave the impression to be having fun with their keep as they playfully posed beside the pool
Katherine Paola Santos even managed to steer Mr Armstrong to take a swim within the sea
But whereas the 78-year-old has now been launched safely, Ms Santos is claimed to have been quizzed by police about her alleged involvement within the millionaire’s kidnapping
Ms Santos was pictured sipping what appears to be a cocktail as beside the Villa’s pool
The Villa d’Este is a 5 star ‘opulent lodge’ which overlooks Lake Como – boasting of a pool, tennis courtroom and world-famous Italian Renaissance gardens
The Villa d’Este is a Sixteenth-century villa in Tivoli, close to Rome, well-known for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance backyard and particularly for its profusion of fountains
Few gardens have been painted or drawn by as many artists than the Villa d’Este, significantly in the course of the Renaissance and within the nineteenth century. As a consequence, options of the backyard influenced different gardens throughout Europe, from England to Russia
Extortion is without doubt one of the prices which police have made towards these arrested for his kidnap.
According to police sources, proof discovered throughout raids this week recommend that final weekend’s kidnapping was deliberate in meticulous element.
Gang members arrived at Rodeo Grande, the place the Armstrong household crest hangs subsequent to the gate together with the household motto ‘Trans Mare Video’ – ‘I see past the ocean’ – within the early hours of Saturday morning.
Staff members who tried to cease them have been overwhelmed as they made their option to the room the place ‘Mr Colin’, as he’s identified by his workers, was sleeping.
A brief video made by a member of workers within the aftermath of the raid, confirmed blood stains on sheets and on the ground of 1 room.
Mr Armstrong was pressured at gunpoint, together with Ms Santos, into his personal black BMW which has diplomatic licence plates. After activating satellite tv for pc monitoring, police later discovered the automotive deserted.
Within hours, information of the kidnapping was throughout Ecuadorian media together with a number of images taken from Ms Santos’ social media accounts which recommend a detailed relationship between him and Ms Santos. In one they seem like on safari in Africa; in one other, visiting Egypt.
There are images of them in beachwear, with a delighted-looking and moustachioed Mr Armstrong in a Panama hat and shorts and bearing greater than a passing similarity to the British actor Terry-Thomas as he wraps his arms round a seemingly devoted Ms Santos.
There can be video footage of Mr Armstrong at what seems to be Ms Santos’ thirtieth birthday on board a luxurious yacht with dozens of different scantily-clad younger girls.
Pictures on TikTok present rich businessman Colin Armstrong and companion Ms Santos having fun with a jet-set way of life previous to their kidnapping on Saturday
Colin Armstrong, 78, and companion Katherine Paola Santos are pictured on a yacht
Video footage has since emerged on social media apparently displaying his girlfriend having an explosives vest eliminated by a bomb disposal skilled
On her LinkedIn web page, Ms Santos, who’s listed on the books of Ecuadorian modelling company Studio Moda, says she has labored for Agripac since 2013.
The firm, which sells all the things from seeds, fertilisers to pet meals, makes use of fashions, usually dressed as cowgirls, for promotional work and Ms Santos seems in images with Mr Armstrong taken at Rodeo Grande way back to 2014.
Given his excessive profile, it’s maybe not shocking that huge quantities of Ecuadorian police assets have been devoted to making sure Mr Armstrong’s protected return this week.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed that it had additionally supported the Ecuadorian authorities. British intelligence companies are additionally mentioned to have assisted the police operation.
So far, 9 folks, one overseas nationwide and eight Ecuadorians have been arrested. It just isn’t identified if any ransom was paid.
But with the kidnapping shining a highlight on the deteriorating safety scenario within the nation, police authorities say which are nonetheless investigating this terribly audacious kidnapping plot and following up a number of leads.
Speaking to the Mail this week, General Freddy Sarzosa Guerra, the police’s director of investigations, mentioned: ‘This is being investigated as a kidnap for cash and the motive was an financial one.’
On Wednesday Cesar Augusto Zapata Correa, Ecuador’s police chief, tweeted that Mr Armstrong had been discovered on close to Manabi not removed from Los Rios the place he was snatched
Police confirmed off the stash they’d confiscated from the gang, which included 5 grenades
The gang considered behind the kidnapping of millionaire Colin Armstrong
For now the Armstrong household have requested for privateness to get better from the surprising occasions of the previous week.
‘All of the UK household, workers and associates are delighted with the result and stay up for a happier Christmas,’ mentioned Leo Morris, who’s director of Tupgill Park Estate the place he grew up and is considered an ‘adopted son’ by Mr Armstrong.
The Manchester-born businessman, because the Mail can reveal, isn’t any stranger to hazard.
Having travelled the globe as a younger man working for what was then British chemical firm, ICI, he arrange his personal agricultural distribution firm, Agripac, in Ecuador the place he has lived for half a century.
Over the many years, his extraordinary life has been punctuated with extra moments of excessive drama than most would folks would count on to expertise of their careers.
From devastating floods and army coups, to the homicide of certainly one of his former managers who died whereas attempting to fend off armed robbers, Mr Armstrong has actually seen greater than his justifiable share of bother over the previous 5 many years.
Barely a yr into his position as honorary consul and within the midst of the Falklands War, he was pressured to fend off pro-Argentine sympathisers who turned up on the British Consulate in Guayaquil demanding a Union Jack to burn.
While rubbing shoulders with the likes of Princess Anne and entertaining former Tory Minister John Gummer and ex Tory MP David Mellor in his consular position, Mr Armstrong has additionally needed to confront cattle rustlers and employed armed guards to patrol his ranch and sleep in the home when the property was unoccupied.
Reports from Ecuador this week claimed that Mr Armstrong had been kidnapped after he refused to pay month-to-month safety cash.
His son, Nick, who took over his father’s consular position in 2016, has beforehand led the British-Ecuadorian chamber of industries and commerce.
He additionally works as a director of Ripon Race Company in North Yorkshire and helps his father run Agripac.
