After the action, a combat occurred between the troops and the members of this criminal organization, who intended to generate pressure for the release of the criminals.
In the course of military operations, troops of the National Army, in a coordinated and joint work with the Colombian Air Force and the Police, arrested in flagrante delicto three individuals apparently belonging to the residual Organized Armed Group, GAO-r, substructure 39.
The operation occurred in the village El Silencio, a rural area of the municipality of Mapiripán, Meta, where the troops arrived, after denunciations by the police about individuals who would be threatening merchants and ranchers with the purpose of extortion.
After the arrests, the criminals opened fire on the authorities, in order to exert pressure to obtain the release of the detainees; so the soldiers responded immediately, starting a firefight in the area.
Among those arrested is the finance ringleader of this residual organized armed group, who would have paid a sentence in prison 2018, for the crime of simple kidnapping in the department of Arauca, when he was part of the residual GAO, Structure 10. After serving his sentence, he entered Structure 39, to continue committing crimes.
Another of those arrested is a 26-year-old individual, who was part of the ringleader's security group, who would have demobilized in 2016, when he belonged to the extinct 14 front.
As it could be established, these people were carrying out criminal intelligence activities on the villages of Caño Jabón, California, La Esmeralda, La Realidad, and Esteros Altos, in Mapiripán, in the department of Meta, in order to identify farmers and ranchers to demand money of them in exchange for not attacking their lives or property. In the same way, they would apparently have responsibility for the kidnapping of 19 people belonging to a medical mission in the Rincón del Indio sector, of the municipality of Mapiripán, on December 15, 2021. They are in the same way accused of being allegedly responsible for the forced recruitment of minors and the attack on the indigenous governor the hamlet Puerto Alvira, on the first of July.
At the time of the arrest, two hand grenades, a 38-millimeter revolver, ammunition, two notebooks containing the list of extorted persons, extortion pamphlets alluding to the residual GAO, E-39, two cell phones and cash from extortion were found by troops.
The arrested were put into custody of the Prosecutor's Office 113 of Villavicencio, where they will have to face charges of manufacturing, trafficking and carrying weapons and manufacturing and carrying weapons of the exclusive use of the Military Forces.
Source: Press - Fourth Division of the National Army
