At the request of the Office of the Attorney General, a judge imposed a prison sentence against seven taxi drivers, as alleged members of a criminal structure involved in extorting drivers of the same trade union in collection points at Comuna 14 of Medellín.

Those prosecuted people are the brothers and alleged ringleaders: Marco Aurelio and Jhony Alexander Marín Muriel; in addition to the alleged members known as alias El Perro, Bambino, Yeison or Barbas, Marciano and El Cojo. They did not plead guilty to conspiracy to commit crimes and aggravated extortion.

According to information obtained by Gaula of the National Police, this criminal organization, known as Los Taxistas, is aligned with La Terraza criminal group. Apparently, it has been committing crimes since 2012 in Provenza sector near the Poblado metro station.

According to the investigation carried out by a prosecutor appointed to Gaula in Medellín, each one of these men apparently was in charge of collection points in which they demanded between 5,000 COP daily or 30,000 COP weekly from the drivers, in exchange for allowing them to work at the place. In addition, they allegedly threatened them with damaging their vehicles or making an attempt on their lives if they did not pay the amount.

The perpetrators allegedly forced the drivers to buy them the narcotics in exchange for not paying the extortion fee. During the investigation, it was found that one of the victims handed over a total of 4,000,000 COP; another paid 800,000 COP for the right to be at the collection point, in addition to paying 30,000 COP weekly.

It was also revealed that the criminal gang earned around 5,000,000 COP weekly derived from illegal profits of the various collection points.

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