2023-05-24 07:01:00
16
members of “los Costeños” were sent to jail on extortion charges, among others.
Not paying the extortion is becoming a risk of ruin for the merchants of Barranquilla, whose businesses are in the area of influence of the “Los Costeños” gang.
A series of complaints known by the Gaula, accounts for the way in which these criminals escalate their level of violence as the demands against the community increase.
In some sectors of downtown Barranquilla and the San Roque, Chiquinquirá and Barrio Montes neighborhoods, merchants must pay weekly amounts ranging from $100,000 to $10 million, depending on the characteristics of their business.
A Gaula investigator told EL COLOMBIANO that the charges begin with pamphlets that the merchant receives at his store or through a Whatsapp message.
If the threatened party refuses to pay, the criminals arrive at the establishment at dawn, splash its facade with gasoline and set it on fire, as seen in videos collected as evidence.
In some cases, the situation reaches such extremes that the hit men from “Los Costeños” break into the premises and randomly shoot those present. The purpose is to drive away customers to cause economic damage to the merchant; in certain episodes there have been deaths from this practice.
In response, the Gaula carried out an operation in recent days, which ended with the capture of 16 members of the group. This cell received orders from two leaders who are imprisoned, according to the Police, Carlos Ortiz Blanco (“Cachete”) and Jairo Sáenz Zambrano (“Jota Jota”).
Colonel Elver Sanabria, deputy director of the Gaula, indicated that after the guarantee control hearings, a judge sent them to prison for conspiring to commit crimes, extortion, arms trafficking and drug trafficking.
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