The Office of the Attorney General dismantled the criminal gang ‘Los del Gordo’ involved in the theft of luxury watches and merchandise of department stores

The Office of the Attorney General prosecuted nine people, alleged members of the gang ‘Los del Gordo’, apparently involved in stealing luxury watches and merchandise from department stores.

The arrests were carried out on March 9 in various sectors of Barranquilla by members of CTI, EDA and the Anti-narcotics Unit of the Office of the Attorney General, with the cooperation of Gaula-Army.

As a result of the operations, 16 luxury watches valued at COP 100 million and nine cell phones were seized, allegedly used to plan crimes.

Judicial police information proved that the defendants used the so-called modality known as “Hormiga” that consists in petty thefts in chain stores. According to the investigation carried out by a prosecutor of the Sectional Office in Atlántico, it seems that this criminal organization known as ‘Los del Gordo’ began its criminal activity on March 2020.

After the hearings*, the Office of the Attorney General obtained detention measures. Luis Alfonso Alvarado Rengifo and Juan Carlos Parra Luna were sent to prison. House arrest measures were issued against Camilo Alberto Alvarado Rengifo, Ana Georgina Arias Oviedo, Greis Esther Salza Rodríguez, Luzdary Jurado Ramos, Jhon Jairo Cardona Fajardo, Bray Luis Molina Salvatierra and Ginni Tatiana Romero de la Vega.

The defendants were charged, according to their individual responsibilities, with aggravated conspiracy and aggravated robbery in consistent sequence of serial crime and receiving stolen property.

The Office of the Attorney General´s actions take place within the framework of the Strategic Direction 2020-2024 drawn up by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, in which public safety is a priority.

The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.

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)