Colombia’s police raided 11 prisons in eight cities in an attempt to shut down inmates’ involvement in extortion.
The commander of the National Police, General William Salamanca, led the operation that was carried out by some 2,000 of officers early in the morning.
Eight people, including six prison guards, were arrested in the first hours of the operation, according to General Jose Luis Ramirez.
504 sim cards, 25 Internet modems and 19 electronic items (radios and solar panels) were seized… In addition, 408 knives, 322 cell phones, 6,641 grams of narcotics and 172 notebooks with information on extortion and other criminal activities have been confiscated.
General Jose Luis Ramirez
According to the police, imprisoned gang members have long played a major role in the extortion of businesses, particularly in Bogota and other major cities.
Bogota mayor Carlos Fernando Galan said last month that local police had shut down a “call center” for extortion in another raid in the Modelo prison.
The same prison was raided again in the National Police operation.
According to the Defense Ministry, a record number of 10,208 people reported to be the victim of extortion between January and October of this year.
This is an 18% increase compared to the same period of last year.