As indicated by the institution, unscrupulous people identify themselves as the commander of the Ninth Brigade and the Army units with a presence in the department, to defraud and extort money.
It is an organized criminal gang that, from the metropolitan area of Valle de Aburrá, carries out an entire criminal network to defraud and extort personalities and productive unions in the Department of Huila.
Apparently, through social networks and a tour of the institutional web pages, they obtain the telephone numbers to start their criminal activity. The most recent action was registered in a municipality in the south of Huila, where a Municipal Ombudsman was contacted.
According to the investigative work, the person on the other side of the line is identified as Colonel Edwin Becerra Díaz, Commander of the Ninth Brigade, which allows us to deduce that along with the study of the victim’s profile, they usurp the identity of persons who, due to their position, are recognized in the Department.
Immediately afterwards, they gain the trust of the interlocutor to whom they offer social aid, such as clothing donations so that they can be distributed among the vulnerable population, repairing the façade of churches and the participation of soldiers in Integral Action activities. In exchange, they ask for an advance of money for the supposed transfer of the aid, which never arrives, configuring the crime of fraud.
On this occasion, along with the offer of aid and the request to advance money, the criminal, reiterating that he is the Commander of the Ninth Brigade, tells his victim that he is close to receiving the housing subsidy, that he requests the support of the Ombudsman to contact an architectural firm and this is where criminals take the opportunity to make new criminal intelligence and thus proceed to make extortion-type calls through messages or pamphlets.
The Command of the Ninth Brigade reiterates the call to the Huilenses to hesitate when they receive this type of offers that do not comply with the actions of the National Army, and on the contrary, call the free line 147, the official channel through which they can not only verify the information, but also receive advice and to make the respective complaint, providing the tools to initiate legal actions.
