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Former El Salvador player Pacheco shot dead

December 28, 2015

A former international footballer has been shot dead in his native El Salvador. Apart from his international career, Alfredo Pacheco was notable for having been banned for life for match-fixing.

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Beerdigung von Alfredo Pacheco
Image: Reuters/J. Orellana

Police in Santa Ana, located 66 kilometers (41 miles) west of the capital, San Salvador, said that the 33-year-old Pacheco had been shot dead as he left a filling station in the town on Sunday.

"The former international was killed by a group of unknown assailants as he left a petrol station with friends," a police spokesman said.

The spokesman added that two friends who had been traveling with Pacheco had been wounded in the attack. There was no immediate word on a possible motive for the shooting.

Banned for match-fixing

In 2013, Pacheco, a defender who scored seven goals in his 86 international appearances for El Salvador, was banned for life from all football activities after he was found guilty of involvement in the fixing of matches between 2010 and 2012. Thirteen other El Salvador players also received bans.

Pacheco spent most of his club career with one of El Salvador's biggest clubs, FAS, but also made 14 appearances while on loan to Major League Soccer outfit New York Red Bulls in 2009.

Spike in gang-related violence

El Salvador has been plagued by gang violence in recent years with the national watchdog IML having reported more than 6,000 murders between January and November of this year. That's almost the double the recorded figure for the same period in 2014.

Pacheco's shooting death comes just over a fortnight after Honduras-born international football star Arnold Peralta was gunned down in his hometown.

pfd/msh (dpa, AFP)