In a coordinated effort with the Public Ministry, personnel from the Copiapó Robbery Investigation Brigade of the Police Investigations (PDI) The arrest of two foreign citizens of Venezuelan nationality was carried out, who are allegedly responsible for a kidnapping for extortion, as well as a robbery with intimidation and violence against a woman, which occurred in the capital of the northern region.
According to police information, one of the two detainees is a former member of the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command (Conas) of the Bolivarian National Guardan elite anti-kidnapping group in his country.
The investigation was carried out by the Criminal Analysis and Investigative Focus Unit and the Team Against Organized Crime and Homicide (ECOH) of the Atacama Prosecutor’s Office, with the support of PDI officials.
The background of the case was revealed this Wednesday at the hearing to formalize the investigation into the events.
“Both suspects approached the female victim inside a fast food restaurant in Copiapó, assaulted her, stole her personal belongings, and put her in a vehicle to hold her hostage for around two hours, while they asked her for information about a third party who had participated in the theft of a car belonging to one of the participants in the kidnapping. The victim was later released in the Andacollo tomato sector in this city. All this information was provided to the prosecutor of the Sacfi Unit to be presented at the respective hearing.”explained the head of the Robbery Investigation Brigade of the PDI, Subprefect Patricio Arévalo.
Arévalo indicated that based on the procedures ordered by the prosecutor on duty in the early hours of Tuesday, various interviews and analysis of the scene of the event were carried out, thus being able to determine the participation of two Venezuelan citizens in the reported events.
For his part, the prosecutor of the Criminal Analysis and Investigative Focus Unit (Sacfi) of the Atacama Prosecutor’s Office, Sebastian Coya, He said that the events under investigation began with the theft of a vehicle from one of the defendants, who along with the second detainee and other subjects not yet identified wanted to “take justice into their own hands” by locating the stolen car in the fast food restaurant.
There they intercepted a woman who was accompanying the person who had stolen the car and fled.
“Although there is certainty that the woman had no relationship with the robbery, they attacked her, stole her belongings and put her in a vehicle against her will for approximately two hours, while at the same time she was extorted to hand over information on the perpetrator of the vehicle theft. Action that led the detainees to commit two crimes that carry criminal penalties and whose investigations were formalized, such as kidnapping for ransom and robbery with violence and intimidation,” the prosecutor said.
As part of the background information known at the hearing, it was indicated that one of the accused had images on his social networks in which he was wearing the uniform of the Conas of Venezuela.
“In the face of this, the allegations that he was unaware that the action he was committing involved a crime does not make sense, since this person was dedicated in his country of origin to preventing precisely this type of crime,” the prosecutor argued.
At the hearing, the Public Ministry presented different evidence gathered in this initial stage of the case, including images from the security cameras of the premises where the victim was intercepted and which showed the participation of the detainees in the crimes investigated.
In addition, the statements of the affected woman and police reports were argued to support the request of the Atacama Prosecutor’s Office to deprive the accused of their liberty.
In his resolution, the Judge on duty indicated that the background information presented by the Public Ministry corroborated the participation of the detainees and ordered their preventive detention because they were considered a danger to the security of society.
A period of three months was set for the closure of the investigation.
