Colombian immigrant living in Saskatoon tells how cartel hitmen murdered his family

George Barreras never planned on moving his family to Saskatoon but cocaine hitmen forced him to flee Colombia a decade ago.

Now he's sharing his story with Saskatoon teens and parents. He wants people to know the real price tag of supporting the illegal drug trade.

'They want it, they take it'

Ten years ago, George Barreras worked in water treatment outside Cali, Colombia. He had settled there with his wife, Hiscay. Her father, Guillermo Rivera, owned 2,000 hectares of land with a river running through it.

"My wife's family they had land that was inherited from generation to generation, and then criminal groups in Colombia wanted the land. And they approached her family and said we need the land," he said.

"Well these criminal groups don't pay for them, they just want the land. They refused and that's how her father was murdered, her brother, her uncle, her cousins, and the only people left were us, so that's when we had to start running."

Rivera was shot leaving his home and died in front of his daughter.

"Everyone got two shots in the head. Every single one."

A story to tell

Barreras and his family eventually made their way to Saskatoon. Now he works at the water treatment plant and tells his story.

Next week, he'll be a speaker at a drug education seminar organized by Const. Matt Ingrouille. Like Ingrouille, he will not lecture kids about why they shouldn't do drugs.

"The message that I want to give to people is that when they pay for drugs they're not only killing themselves but that that money they pay for drugs ends up in the hands of criminal groups that eventually murder people like my family," he said.

"When you pay for drugs on the street, you're killing other people and that blood money ends up eventually in the hands of criminals."

The seminar is set for Wednesday 7 p.m. at the police station. It's open to the public.