65 facilitating the entry into the region of the paramilitary group, they also failed to help the civilian population during the incursion and during the theft of the livestock and its transfer from the area. v) Criminal investigations 125(87) Initially the events of El Aro were investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office, through the Delegate Prosecutor of the Ituango circuit and the Yarumal Delegate Prosecutor. On November 20, 1997, the investigations were reassigned to the then Medellín Regional Prosecutor’s Office. On July 23, 1999, the investigation was forwarded to the National Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office under case file No. UDH-525. 125(88) From November 1997 to February 1998, the Prosecutor General’s Office received statements from witnesses and next of kin of the alleged victims; ordered and conducted investigatory procedures to determine the identity of those involved, and carried out judicial inspections in the district. 125(89) On March 19, 1998, the Prosecutor General’s Office decided to order that a preliminary inquiry should be opened and ordered the investigation of Carlos Castaño Gil and Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández in the proceedings. On June 4, 1999, it was declared that Carlos Castaño could not be found and Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández’s statement was heard. On July 1, 1999, an arrest warrant was issued for Carlos Castaño Gil and Francisco Villalba Hernández for murder and the establishment of private justice groups. 125(90) On March 29, 1999, the Office of the Delegate Prosecutor before the Regional Judges exhumed several corpses in order to carry out autopsies and identify them. As a result, the mortal remains of Luis Modesto Múnera Posada, Marco Aurelio Areiza, Nelson de Jesús Palacios Cárdenas, Andrés Mendoza and Alberto Correa were identified. 125(91) On February 24, 2000, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, Alexander Mercado Fonseca and Héctor Darío Gallego Meza were summoned to appear in relation to the investigation. On September 21, 2000, it was declared that Salvatore Mancuso and Alexander Mercado Fonseca could not be found. On February 23, 2001, arrest warrants were issued for Salvatore Mancuso Gómez and Alexander Mercado Fonseca. 125(92) On September 10, 2001, the acting Prosecutor indicted Carlos Castaño Gil, Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez and Alexander Mercado Fonseca as alleged co-authors of the crime of conspiracy to commit a crime together with aggravated murder and aggravated theft. 125(93) On April 22, 2003, the Second Criminal Court of the Antioquia Specialized Circuit delivered judgment against Carlos Castaño Gil, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez and Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, sentencing the first two to 40 years’ imprisonment and the latter to 33 years’ imprisonment for the murder of 15 persons, conspiracy to commit a crime, compounded by aggravated theft. With the exception of Francisco Enrique Villalba, who was detained serving a prison sentence for other crimes, the said civilians – including important paramilitary leaders – were tried and sentenced in absentia and the arrest warrants against them have never been executed.