A prosecutor appointed to the Sectional Office in Bolívar brought Fernando León Palacios and Jhosep Cabrera Smith before a judge. They were allegedly involved in extortion committed against a merchant in Cartagena since July.
The joint work between the Office of the Attorney General and Gaula of the National Police allowed the arrest of the defendants in Villa Estrella neighborhood, when León Palacios and Cabrera Smith received a sum of money from the owner of a restaurant, presumably related to illegal economic demands.
The denunciation revealed that the defendants, who pretended to be part of an illegal organization, asked for five million COP from the merchant in exchange for providing security and not attacking him, his business or his workers.
The defendants must serve a sentence in San Sebastián Ternera prison in Bolívar by decision of the judge.
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.