The famous ‘millionaire walks’ arrived in the city of Neiva. This modality of robbery that has been practiced for several years and that has not been able to be controlled by the territorial entities, apparently, is becoming the favorite of criminals in the capital opita. In Neiva, four cases have been registered in less than two weeks and it is expected that the accomplices could be related to the spaces where the misdeeds are committed.
DIARIO DEL HUILA, CLOSE UP
By: Johan Edward Rojas Lopez
The alarms in the region were set off after a public complaint made by the lawyer Juan Diego Ortiz, who was a victim of this scourge last weekend. According to the victim, this happened after boarding a taxi, seconds after leaving a renowned nightclub in the city. It is important to add that many citizens when they decide to go out to consume liquor prefer not to take their vehicles to avoid inconveniences and, therefore, they consider that by taking public transport they will arrive safely at their homes.
Despite the fact that he went out with several friends, each one took a taxi to reach their destinations, however, unfortunately they were scooped and stolen. “I think it is a light dose because in my first moment of lucidity I managed to realize what happened, I realize that they have my belongings and I don’t know how I managed to get out of the taxi. There I realize that I am on the outskirts of the city of Neiva, via Palermo, but thank God not all of them are bad and another taxi driver picked me up and took me to my destination, ”he said.
Upon arriving at his home, he told his girlfriend almost everything was smooth, who diligently reviewed the notifications and alerts that had arrived in the mail for each transaction made, in addition, he also realized that they had him for more than two hours under those conditions Well, he left the disco at 4:00 in the morning and arrived at his destination around 6:30 in the morning.
That Sunday he prepared to go to Forensic Medicine, but it was closed and only now did he understand that he had to go to the city hospital where these events are treated and thus have his toxicological profile carried out to find out exactly what substance they gave him.
Obviously he does not know many details, including how he recovered his wallet and what was the ‘modus operandi’ to drug him. “The next day I decided to go to Bancolombia and there they informed me that the card I had in my wallet was not mine but someone else’s who had also reported it as lost. And at that very moment, next to me was an elderly person, an elderly person, who, according to what they told me, had taken him on the millionaire day trip,” added the lawyer.
Following this public complaint, he claims to have received a large number of calls and messages from various people, who have informed him that this type of crime is more common than everyone imagines in a city as small as Neiva, which is plagued by the delinquency. In fact, he emphasized that it could be an organized gang dedicated to this type of scourge.
Faced with this, he asks the competent authorities and the leaders to pay special attention to this situation that could turn into major tragedies, which has already been reported, according to some victims who, out of fear, have not spoken out for a long time. about four years.
Thus, he explained that “we are all at risk from the criminal hand and it is important to take a photo of the taxi driver’s license plate, in addition, to know the route to follow. I feel that this situation has become naturalized.”
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Four cases in two weeks
Andrés Felipe Martínez, director of Coexistence and Security of Neiva, assured that, at this moment, this situation generates a disturbance of public order in the municipality, therefore, they are in meetings with the unions involved in order to deal with this problem.
This will allow them to take measures focused on these scourges that cannot occur since citizens seek this means of transport because it “guarantees” security and tranquility. It is then expected through the meetings to put an immediate stop to this criminal act that occurs throughout the territory without any distinction, especially at night.
“The information we have according to the investigation carried out by our investigative body Sijín and CTI of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, shows that it is a topic that has been presented for approximately two weeks in the municipality, especially in the various spaces of night establishments.
He announced that “although it is recent, we will not let it progress. We have approximately four cases with complaints and, therefore, we invite people who have suffered from this unfortunate event to file complaints because this allows us to confront this situation.”
Alert in Neiva for repetitive cases
Raúl Rivera Cortés, government secretary of the municipality, said that, in effect, this situation has set off alerts in the capital of the department. According to the public official, this “new criminal modality” is due to the hard work of the plan to combat crime that is being developed and has produced very good results.
“We have greatly reduced the rates of criminal acts in the city, but it turns out that since we are attacking them from other fronts, they appear with a new modality that was foreseeable since this is a circumstance that occurs not only in Neiva, but also in the whole country. Crime mutates from one city to another because these are large criminal structures,” said the head of government.
These repetitive cases that began to develop a couple of days ago especially affect young people who leave nightclubs late in the morning, who take taxis and are scabbed during their journey home. There they steal their belongings and make them a millionaire’s past. This is why we seek to generate a shared, articulated action and a common effort with the administrators of the nightclubs and the taxi driver leaders.
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Thus, he reiterated that, “The entertainment centers that go until late at night have to commit to us so that the person who leaves their establishment does so safely and we know who the taxis are that provide the service outside. We are going to have cameras, we are going to identify them and label them to be more effective”.
They are also officiating at this moment to the taxi companies of the city so that they urgently report to the Secretary of Government, the complete list of all their drivers and the license plate of their affiliated vehicles, with the purpose of having a record that will be crossed with the other entities to verify this situation because not all drivers act like this and the entire union cannot be stained.
It is important for him to clarify that it could be an organized gang that is camouflaging itself in the yellow guild to commit its misdeeds.
Could the accomplices be inside the same clubs?
A constant in the millionaire walk modality that could generate even greater concern is that normally these criminals have accomplices in the various unions.
“While this is being done, we are also working with the employees of the nightclubs whom we are going to train so that in one way or another they guarantee us that in that framework of the financial year that they do they provide security. There is a constant in the theft modality of the millionaire walk that teaches us from experiences and healthy criticism that there is always someone from the establishment where the people who will be impacted with this type of crime are, who is serving as an accomplice. This has been shown by some investigations that account for the accomplices and, for this reason, accompaniment is offered,” Rivera Cortés added.
Committed to eradicating crime
Under this logic, he promised to combat this new criminal modality without neglecting the others, as he commented that they have the necessary operational capacity for this action together with the Neiva Metropolitan Police, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, the defense bodies of human rights and all the entities that are present in each performance.
He also mentioned that, “it is important to understand that this is a circumstance or modality of scopolamine that has existed for a long time, but the fact that they act through a public service waiting for the people who leave these sites, naturally sets off alarms. We are going to guarantee that this does not continue to occur, yes, under the understanding that we have to make a common front between the owners and employees of the establishments, the taxi drivers and naturally with the authorities to dismantle this type of criminal gangs”.
‘Mode of operation’
In the four registered cases, the ‘modus operandi’ is the same and consists of people leaving the discos, boarding a taxi and in the middle of the journey they scopolamine them without yet knowing how. The truth is that small amounts of scopolamine are being used, but technically thinking that the victims do not lose their willpower and be able to go to ATMs automatically. Once they are stolen, they are left somewhere and they do not remember much, but we are certain that it is from the vehicle they took to reach their destinations.