BENGALURU: The Jayanagar police have busted a tech savvy gang of five Colombian nationals, including a woman, having a long history of crimes in their home country and now committing robberies in Bengaluru. Jose Edwardo alias Arevalo Burbano (40), Gustavo Adolfo alias Jaramillo Giraldo (47), Yair Alberto Sanchez alias Roger Smith Duart alias Paisa (50), Edward Alexis alias Garcia Paramo (38) and his wife Kimberly Jhoarya (30) are the arrested gang members.
They were involved in six high profile robberies in the city, including the one at the house of former state chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee in HSR Layout, in June. The police claimed they have recovered diamond and gold ornaments, expensive watches, foreign currency and two cars, totally worth Rs 80 lakh, from the accused. They were using GPS and walkie-talkies to remain connected and communicate with each other while committing robberies.
They, however, ended in police net when they decided to sell the booty online. The accused posted ads on OLX to sell off the objects and one fine day they had police posing as buyers at their doorsteps. According to police, a Colombian national Jose along with his associates had committed a robbery in Bengaluru in 2010. Later, in order to expand his gang, he persuaded Jose Edwardo and Gustavo Adolfo to accompany him to Bengaluru. They came to the city in 2016 via Nepal on a tourist visa.
They met one African woman Shami and her African boyfriend at a club. Later they indulged in robberies together until Jose Edwardo and Gustavo Adolfo decided to create their own gang. They invited Yair Alberto, Edward Alexis and his wife Kimberly to their gang in 2018 and began robbing houses of rich people.
Gang formed in Mexico The police said that Jose Edwardo and Gustavo met the other accused in Mexico earlier this year and came to Bengaluru as tourists 4-5 months before their arrest.
The accused pre-booked a fully-furnished villa belonging to a British national and occupied the same one by one within a span of two months. The tech-savvy robbers bought GPS devices, walkie-talkies and other equipment from J.C. Road and K.R. Market and identified houses of the rich. The accused also bought pre-activated SIM cards and two used cars from a showroom.
How they identified houses?
They used cars to recce the areas and both the cars were fitted with GPS devices and connected to each other. According to police, the accused would first identify the houses of the rich and then keep an eye on them. Kimberly would visit the house to check if anyone was residing in it. They would target locked house and decamp with the booty.
How they got caught?
A robbery was reported in June at the Government of Karnataka Kaushik Mukherjee's house and during the investigation, the police had examined of the CCTV footage which had captured the foreign nationals. In July, the gang again struck at a house and the police found the same people in the CCTV footage.
They began gathering information about the gang based on the registration number of their vehicle. With the help of technical experts, the police learnt about an advertisement on OLX. The police called up the accused and expressed their desire to buy the items. They then went to their house and nabbed them.
