The National Police and the Attorney General’s Office led an investigation for 5 months that allowed the dismantling of the criminal group “the rustlers”, dedicated to the crime of cattle rustling under the modality of “carneo”, who had been affecting the peasants of the departments from Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Santander and Meta.
Within the development of this operation, 8 search and raid procedures were carried out in the towns of Ciudad Bolívar, Bosa, Usme and Santa Fe in the city of Bogotá and in the town of Cazucá and the Ducales neighborhood of the municipality of Soacha, achieving the capture of 9 people by court order, who must answer for the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and rustling with circumstances of punitive aggravation, each of whom fulfilled a specific role within the criminal group.
Those captured engaged in the crime of cattle rustling under the modality of “carneo”, which consists of sacrificing the livestock in their grazing area and later disposing of them to steal their meat. Within the investigation it was possible to establish that these criminals went out every 3 days to carry out their criminal activity, choosing a different department each time they were going to commit a crime, in order to avoid being surrounded by the authorities. In some of the cases, the livestock with young in their wombs were butchered.
More than 15 cases of cattle rustling
With these captures, the clarification of 15 acts of rustling under the modality of carnage presented in 12 municipalities of Boyacá is achieved: Rondón, Cerinza, Duitama, Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Aquitania, Betéitiva, Tibasosa, Garagoa, Turmequé, Moniquirá, Arcabuco, Ciénega and 2 municipalities in the Department of Santander: Florián and Gámbita. This criminal group would be responsible for the theft of approximately 300 livestock under this modality.
The people captured were from the departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Santander and the city of Bogotá, who resided in the capital of the country and in the municipality of Soacha (Cundinamarca), from where they traveled to the departments where they carried out these behaviors. criminals and once the fact materialized, they returned to their places of residence with the stolen meat to be later marketed in the city of Bogotá and the municipality of Soacha.
Thanks to the investigation carried out by the SIJIN, it was possible to establish that this group collected approximately 100 million pesos a month as a result of this criminal activity, in which for each act they stole between 4 and 10 livestock.
Among all those captured, they record an extensive criminal record, with 35 notes for the crimes of: rustling, theft, illegal possession of firearms, conspiracy to commit a crime, drug trafficking, simple kidnapping, abusive carnal access with a child under 14 years of age, fraud , personal injuries, fraud to judicial resolution, lack of food assistance, violence against public servants, intrafamily violence, prisoner escape, threats, use of hydrocarbons, reception, violation of someone else’s room and food corruption.
Likewise, they register 18 convictions for the crimes of rustling, qualified and aggravated theft, illegal possession of firearms, kidnapping for extortion, drug trafficking and attempted homicide.
Among the results obtained in this operation, the seizure of $3,700,000 in cash, a traumatic firearm, 9 cartridges of different calibers, 11 cell phones, knife-type sharp weapons used for the slaughter and dismantling of livestock, and 4 vehicles were achieved. , among them a van-type truck, 2 vans and a car, which were used for their mobilization and transport of the meat; It should be noted that these vehicles will enter the process of forfeiture of ownership.
These elements and those captured were made available to the competent authority. Thanks to the overwhelming evidence, a judge imposed a custodial measure on them in a prison.
Source: Boyacá Police