30 men from Gaula arrive in Barranquilla - Barranquilla - Colombia

With the arrival of 30 men from the police gauze to Barranquillalocal authorities launch a series of measures in response to the wave of extortion that shakes local businesses.

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The Military Gaulwhich began operating to combat extortion, reported that 19 arrests have been registered in the metropolitan area: 2 in Barranquilla and 17 in Soledad, from January to February 2022.

The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Barranquilla, Brigadier General Luis Hernandez confirmed that the members of the Gaula are already in the city and that they are specialized in combating criminal structures that are dedicated to extortion.

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“This central level Gaula task force has all the capabilities. In the same way, the articulation with our Military Gaula stands out, as we have been developing activities in the territory and in a differential way in merchants, shopkeepers and transportation”, he indicated.

Local authorities held a security council to analyze the issue of extortion in the city.

He added that the institution has 11 differential research processes, specialized in the matter. He also reported that since the intervention in September of last year, which has been carried out with the Attorney General’s Office, there are already 251 people arrested for extortion who have been registered in Barranquilla.

“We are going to carry out, within this framework of articulation with all the capacities of the institutions, 15 operations simultaneously in the territory and its metropolitan area,” he announced.

Likewise, he pointed out that to date two documents have been filed for the extinction of the domain of ringleaders who were engaged in extortion in Barranquilla.

investigations advance

Mayor Jaime Pumarejo He assured that in total there are 19 ongoing investigative processes, in the hands of specialized prosecutors. Added to this are the two criminal judges specialized in extortion, who have been working for a few weeks, with the support of the United States embassy.

“Reviewing figures for the year 2022 we see that there have been 47 complaints for extortion. We know that it is much more and that there is a fear to denounce, but it is important to highlight that of 47 complaints there are 29 arrests, that is, that there is a high rate of arrests for extortion. Last year there were 235 complaints and 222 arrests were made. We see a high percentage of clearance,” he added.

Payment of rewards

Another of the measures announced by the president was the payment of a reward to those merchants who denounce extortionists.

2 million pesos will be paid for each complaint that leads to the effective capture of a criminal.

The Police are taking care of the complainants and are acting promptly. Each complaint is anonymous, it can be done through a QR code online

“The Police are taking care of the complainants and are acting promptly. Each complaint is anonymous, it can be done through a QR code on the internet, “said Pumarejo.

This code will be another of the strategies that will be used to promote denunciation among the affected sectors.

It consists of a secure medium that will reach all merchants en masse so that they can report anonymously, effectively and without setbacks.

One of the components of this strategy against the crime of extortion is the neutralization of criminal actions from prisons, within which they have already been managed before the Inpec 17 transfers of inmates who were committing crimes from the prisons.

BARRANQUILLA

Russian Bombers Train Over Belarus; US Troops Arrive in Poland

WASHINGTON — 

Russia sent two long-range, nuclear-capable bombers to patrol over western Belarus, Russia’s ally and Ukraine’s neighbor to the north, as the first U.S. troops arrived in Poland.

The Russian Tu-22M3 bombers were accompanied by Su-30SM fighter jets from the Russian and Belarusian air forces and trained for four hours in the third mission of its kind in the last month.

Belarus has grown increasingly close to Russia since the West imposed sanctions on the country following the 2020 elections, which were widely seen as fraudulent, and the subsequent crackdown on peaceful protesters.

On Saturday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko praised the Russian-led security alliance, saying it showed its ability to deploy quickly when it sent troops to Kazakhstan last month to put down fuel price protests that had turned violent.

“While they [NATO] will be still getting prepared to send some troops here, we will already stand at the English Channel, and they know it,” he said in a reference to Western allies, in an interview on Russian state TV.

Lukashenko, however, downplayed the threat of war in Ukraine, saying, “there is no one there to fight us.”

Next week, two prominent European leaders are scheduled to travel to the capitals of Russia and Ukraine for talks with their counterparts about diplomatic measures to ease the growing tensions surrounding Moscow’s potential invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due in Moscow on Monday and Kyiv on Tuesday. The following week, Germany’s Olaf Scholz is set to visit Kyiv on Feb. 14 and Moscow on Feb. 15.

Macron spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO head Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday. In separate conversations each agreed with Macron for the need “to continue working to find through dialogue a path to de-escalation” and that NATO must remain “united in the face of Russian aggression.”

“As announced, the first elements of the brigade battle group from the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army have arrived in Poland,” a Polish military spokesperson said.

The U.S. troops arrived at Rzeszow military base in southeastern Poland, near its border with Ukraine, after U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered the deployment of 1,700 soldiers there. About 4,000 U.S. troops have been stationed in Poland on a rotational basis since 2017.

Biden also ordered troops to Romania and Germany, raising the total number of additional troops to nearly 3,000.

U.S. Army sources have previously said that about 1,700 U.S. service members, primarily from the 82nd Airborne Division, would deploy from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Poland “over the next days.”

The first contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived in Germany on Friday.

U.S. troops from the 18th Airborne Corps arrived Friday in Wiesbaden, Germany, according to the U.S. military’s European Command, which added they would establish a headquarters in Germany to support 1,700 paratroopers who have been ordered to deploy to Poland.

The U.S. placed 8,500 other U.S. troops on high alert in January to deploy to Europe if necessary. They remain on high alert and NATO defense ministers are expected to discuss adding more reinforcements at their next meeting on Feb. 16-17.

According to a New York Times report, while Russia’s troops massed along the border are not ready to launch a total invasion of Ukraine, sections of its army “appear to be in the final stages of readiness for military action should the Kremlin order it.”

Moscow has dispatched an additional 10,000 troops to the region, the Times said, in addition to the thousands of troops already deployed to the area.

Some information for this report was provided by RFE/RL, The Associated Press and Reuters.