A prosecutor appointed to Gaula of the Sectional Office in Bolívar prosecuted, in separate proceedings, five men, who are allegedly responsible for aggravated extortion with attempt in which several merchants in Cartagena were victims.
The decision involved Wilfredo Gómez Franco, alias Tata, Roberto Carlos Burgos Moreno, Eduardo Estrada Gamero, Kevin Michel Pérez Medina and Jhon Jesús Martínez Llenera, who did not plead guilty to the charges.
According to the investigation, the defendants, pretending to be members of criminal groups, allegedly demanded between $1,500,000 and $3,000,000 COP from businessmen in exchange for not make an attempt on their lives, on their relatives and providing them with security in their businesses.
Among the victims there is a foreigner who manages a public establishment in the Villa Sandra neighborhood, the owner of a store in the Paseo Bolívar and the owner of a warehouse in La Esperanza.
The people allegedly involved were caught in flagrante delicto between July 30 and August 2 by the National Police when they were receiving the money from their victims.
Judges ordered in preliminary hearings that Burgos Moreno and Pérez Medina must serve prison sentences. Meanwhile, Gómez Franco and Estrada Gamero must serve house arrest, while Martínez Llenera will continue his process under freedom.
The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out 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.