Medellin authorities have arrested ten alleged gang members who operated in the poor west of the city, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
The nine men and one woman, detained with the assistance of the police group GOES, will be receiving jail sentences, according to the Medellin judge who received the office’s report regarding the danger that the suspects posed to members of the Comuna 13 community.
The 10 suspects are likely members of the gang “Los Conejos,” and according to material presented to the judge, allegedly participated in an August 2010 attack on a Medellin metro station.
The suspects have been charged for criminal intent to carry out acts of terrorism, homicide, and forced displacement, as well as drug trafficking and the illegal carrying of firearms.
Gang-related violence, present in Comuna 13 for years, has experienced an apparent increase in past months. In March, the community reacted strongly after a young hip hop artist from the comuna was murdered simply for inadvertently crossing into the wrong territory.
The International Committee of the Red Cross recently announced plans to intervene in the “organized violence” generated by criminal gangs across the city, particularly in Comuna 13, Comuna 1 and Comuna 6.