{"id":43860,"date":"2025-03-14T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T15:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/?p=43860"},"modified":"2025-03-14T12:02:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T17:02:32","slug":"alleged-members-of-los-forcis-a-criminal-network-involved-in-selling-smuggled-footwear-and-textiles-were-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/2025\/03\/14\/alleged-members-of-los-forcis-a-criminal-network-involved-in-selling-smuggled-footwear-and-textiles-were-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged members of ‘Los Forcis,’ a criminal network involved in selling smuggled footwear and textiles, were arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

The organization allegedly had textile production facilities where they labeled the merchandise with logos and tags of well-known brands to give it the appearance of authentic products.<\/i><\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Attorney General’s Office brought eight alleged members of the criminal group “Los Forcis” before justice. They are allegedly involved in the importation, storage, and sale of smuggled footwear,<\/strong> as well as the production of textiles labeled with recognized brands without complying with customs and tax regulations, in Cali (Valle del Cauca).<\/span><\/p>\n

The people involved in the case are Roberto Alfonso Serna Garc\u00eda, M\u00f3nica Luc\u00eda Quintero Bar\u00f3n, Yenny Marcela Serna Quintero, Edwin Alberto Mart\u00ednez V\u00e1squez, Elmer Antonio S\u00e1nchez Garc\u00eda, Andr\u00e9s Fernando Troches Henao, Yonatan Andr\u00e9s V\u00e9lez Yate and Wilmar Buitr\u00f3n Astudillo.<\/span><\/p>\n

A specialized prosecutor appointed to the branch office in Cali charged these individuals, based on their alleged liability, with aggravated criminal conspiracy, unlawful use of patents, usurpation of industrial property rights and plant breeders’ rights<\/strong>, facilitating smuggling, illicit enrichment of private individuals, and money laundering.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants did not plead guilty to charges and must serve a prison sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The evidence revealed that “Los Forcis” apparently imported counterfeit footwear from abroad and manufactured textiles, labeling and branding them with the logos of well-known clothing brands to give them the appearance of authenticity, and selling them at various points<\/strong>. It was also evident that they concealed the illicit profits from this activity through front companies and payments to fake suppliers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants were arrested in operations conducted by the National Police in Cali (Valle del Cauca). During the proceedings, more than 66 million COP, 16,560 clothing labels, laptops, and hard drives, among other items, were seized.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The organization allegedly had textile production facilities where they labeled the merchandise with logos and tags of well-known brands to give it the appearance of authentic products. The Attorney General’s Office brought eight alleged members of the criminal group “Los Forcis” before justice. They are allegedly involved in the importation, storage, and sale of smuggled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43861,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43860\/revisions\/43861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiscalia.gov.co\/colombia\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}