When police began investigating a double killing on the South Side last week, they realized one of the dead men was a reputed gang boss suspected in two horrific slayings more than a decade ago.Adalberto “Sabu” Santiago, a member of the Spanish Cobras, was found dead Friday afternoon with a bull et in his back inside a home in the 6100 block of South Justine Street in Englewood, according to police and court records.Another man, Cesar Cervantes, was found nearby with at least four bullet wounds. His head was covered with a plastic bag that was secured with duct tape and his hands and feet were bound with zip ties. A black .38-caliber revolver was on the floor next to his head.The 59-year-old Santiago was wearing black gloves when he was killed. He may have robbed and shot Cervantes when a third person then shot Santiago, a police source said. A witness told police she heard gunshots in the house at about 1:30 p.m. Friday and saw a man run out the back door, according to a police report. Cervantes, 45, had lived in the home, the report said.No one's been arrested in the killings. Adalberto Santiago.Cook County sheriff’s office In 2019, Santiago was released from federal prison after serving a 20-year sentence for a drug conviction. His parole ended in late 2024.In that case, prosecutors tried to boost his sentence with allegations that he was a Spanish Cobras “governor” who orchestrated the 2004 suffocation and dismemberment of jewelry store owner Jesus Colon.Colon was abducted and the kidnappers demanded $100,000 from his family, but when a man sent to pick up the money got arrested, Santiago and his associates decided to kill Colon, prosecutors said.Colon, whose mouth was duct-taped, was suffocated and his neck was broken before he was dismembered with a chainsaw, authorities said.Prosecutors had provided the judge with chilling statements from witnesses who implicated Santiago in that killing, but he was never charged with the crime. So the judge refused to consider Colon’s death as a reason to raise Santiago’s sentence. Federal prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence for Santiago. Former assistant U.S. attorney Sergio Acosta, center, during a Chicago Police Accountability Task Force community forum in 2016 to hear from residents before making recommendations for reforms of the Chicago Police Department.Ashlee Rezin /Sun-Times "This was particularly gruesome and heinous," Sergio Acosta, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Santiago, said of Colon's killing. "It was depravity."In 2014, while Santiago was in prison for his federal drug conviction, he was charged with the 2001 killing of Ramon Torres. Santiago was accused of stabbing and shooting Torres in a bathtub during a home invasion.Cook County prosecutors said Santiago’s DNA profile was entered into a national registry after he was sentenced in his federal drug case in 2009, beginning a process that connected him to Torres’ killing. Santiago’s DNA matched blood found in the tub, according to prosecutors, who believed he'd cut his hand with the knife he used to kill Torres.Santiago denied he'd ever met Torres and a jury acquitted him of murder charges, court records show. ...read more read less