The defendants asked the victims’ families for the payment of 600 million COP for their release.

At the request of the Attorney General’s Office, a judge imposed a prison sentence on five men who allegedly participated in the kidnapping of three fishermen from Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca).

The people involved would be Gustavo Adolfo García, Yessferson Riascos Hurtado, Juan Camilo Caicedo, Kevin Esteban Mosquera and Jhon Wilmar Santa Zúñiga, who would be part of a criminal group named Los Contactos. A prosecutor appointed to the so-called Unidad de Vida charged them with aggravated kidnapping for ransom; manufacture, trafficking, possession of firearms, accessories, parts or ammunition; and trafficking and possession of narcotics.

According to the investigation, the victims were contacted by phone by some of the defendants, who, through deception, offered them a job in Cali, so that they had to set up fish sales points in some of the city’s markets. 

The victims traveled from Buenaventura to Cali, and were picked up in a vehicle at the transport terminal. Later, they were taken to a house in the east part of the city, where they were kidnapped and tied up by their hands and feet.

The victims were stripped of their cell phones, and their relatives were contacted to provide a large sum of money for their release. They allegedly recorded videos in which the fishermen were threatened with firearms, and also took photographs of them being beaten and with injuries on their faces in order to press. 

Investigative activities allowed the identification of people who picked up the kidnapped people and the location of the place where they were held hostages at the east area of Cali (Valle del Cauca).

After 72 hours of kidnapping, units of Gaula Police arrived at the place and rescued the three fishermen and arrested the five alleged perpetrators. During the operation, a firearm, ammunition, and doses of narcotics were seized.

The judge ordered to transfer five arrested people to Villahermosa prison.

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.