More than four years ago, criminal gangs dedicated to the theft of exclusive and expensive Rolex watches and others of that type have been registered. Although their dismantling has been announced several times in recent years, they emerge again with new criminal activities.
The newspaper El Tiempo pointed out that on March 11 and 9, two victims of the Rolex gang were recorded, a man and a woman who were assaulted solely to hand over the luxurious accessory with death threats against them. In addition, another case in mid-February.
One of them occurred when the victim was traveling in a vehicle and an armed criminal forced him to lower the glass at the threat of shooting, “The Rolex, The Rolex, The Rolex,” he told him. The other two people were inside a bicycle shop and the other in a restaurant, as far as the criminals arrived.
Major Oscar Gutiérrez, head of the Public Security Investigative Unit, spoke to the newspaper and said that three gangs have been dismantled, but thefts continue to be recorded that show new modus operandi of these criminals who go after Rolex watches.
He assures that although they always work with a person who is responsible for ocularly verifying that the victim is wearing a Rolex watch, who then alerts the person who is responsible for committing the theft, it has been recorded that the victims are now monitored more extensively and they are attacked in places other than commercial establishments such as restaurants, where it was mostly happening.
Likewise, the victims have identified accents both foreign and from other cities in the country, so the gangs have established tentacles in other capitals such as Medellín, both to commit thefts and to market the jewels.
According to La FM, on March 19 there was a theft against two foreigners in Medellín. The theft was recorded in a video that went viral, when the two victims were in a shopping center.
The two were approached by a man with a firearm, who demanded that they hand over their belongings, including the two Rolex watches, and fled on board a motorcycle. Colonel José Galindo, operational commander of the Aburrá Valley Metropolitan Police, later reported, according to the broadcaster, that they had succeeded in the seizure of the vehicle, another car, the capture of two people and the recovery of the accessories.
In mid-February, according to the newspaper El Heraldo, the commander of the Barranquilla Metropolitan Police, Luis Hernández Aldana, denied the existence of a band like Los Rolex in the Atlantic capital, even though there had already been cases.
At the end of January a man was approached by a motorized subject who told him: “Don't get yourself killed, pyrobo, the watch, the watch...”, to strip him of a Rolex. By that week, several subjects had also been captured in Cartagena, two from the interior of the country, who minutes earlier had stolen two other people with watches of that brand.
In Spain, several members of a band with the same name as The Rolex, which was dedicated to stealing jewelry stores and taking away expensive watches, including Latin members, are also prosecuted. The authorities, in Colombia, said the newspaper El Tiempo, are continuing to investigate the contacts of these organizations as well as the mechanisms they would be implementing to identify victims such as transport companies and even restaurants.
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