A politician and 20 others were arrested on Saturday after an investigation into land theft and a double homicide in northeastern Colombia.
Jose Maria Franco, a former deputy of the Santander department assembly, allegedly headed a criminal organization known as “Los Caporales.” The group is tied to a double murder in March 2011 over an altercation relating to the ownership of land, in which two brothers were murdered in Giron, Santander.
While the original investigation yielded no results, in January the case was passed to the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Colombian police, where a specialized team advanced the investigation and were seemingly able to establish that the group had been stealing land.
Metropolitan Police Commander, Brigadier General Mojica Saul Torres stated that “this is a six-month investigation in which we worked seriously in the collection of material elements that allowed us to arrest these 21 people. The investigation is not over, and will be moving to establish if these people had collusion with other officials.”
Giron, Santander
Sources
- Capturada banda que lideraba exdiputado (El Tiempo)
- Capturado un político y 20 personas más por despojo de tierras en Girón (La Vanguardia Liberal)