22 people were arrested by virtue of a court order and another 3 were arrested in flagrante delicto. In 28 search warrants, a storehouse containing short and long-range firearms, ammunition with a different caliber, and COP 97 million in cash were seized.
As part of the strategy led by the Office of the Attorney General to counteract the incursion of criminal organizations and stop the use of weapons in acts of vandalism that undermine the social protest, a joint operation was carried out with the support of Dijin- National Police and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) which made it possible to dismantle a network involved in trafficking firearms (known as Diamante) with the arrest of 25 of its alleged members.
25 alleged members of the criminal gang Diamante were arrested in simultaneous search warrants carried out in 4 cities.
18 of the 22 arrests carried out by virtue of a court order were conducted in Cali, 1 in Buga (Valle del Cauca), 2 in Bogotá and 1 in Medellín (Antioquia). Three other arrests were conducted in flagrante delicto in the main city of Valle del Cauca.
Under the coordination of a prosecutor, several officers carried out 28 simultaneous search warrants in the aforementioned cities on May 18th in which short and long-range firearms (AK-40 rifles, rifles Sig Sauer with a telescopic sight, grenade launchers, revolvers, pistols), grenades, ammunition of different calibers, accessories, parts of rifles and machine guns for private use, and cell phones were seized.
An arsenal with short and long-range weapons was seized from the defendants.
Likewise, about COP 97 million in cash were seized, thereby affecting the illicit finances of this criminal organization.
According to the investigation that was documented with technical and testimonial evidence, wiretappings, surveillance and monitoring, this criminal structure that was committing crimes since April 2019, brought weapons from the United States and later distributed them to illegal armed groups or collection offices in different cities of the country.
In hearings*, a supervisory judge legalized 25 arrests and the seizures. In the next few hours, the Office of the Attorney General will bring charges and request detention measures against the people allegedly responsible for the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and manufacture, trafficking and possession of firearms for the exclusive use of the Military Forces or explosives.
This result has an impact on the traffic of weapons and prevents firearms from circulating on the streets of Cali or being used during acts of vandalism in the city.
When we speak, results follow.
The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out the criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.
*Several kinds of hearings held in one hearing (known as audiencias concentradas in Spanish)