Red-handed, or rather with the bills in their mouths, they say, they arrested a police officer in Colombia who, seeing that he had been ‘discovered’ committing an alleged racketeering crime, decided to ‘swallow’ the paper money.

There is not a topic of conversation or joke in the neighboring country that does not revolve around this unusual case that was registered in Soacha in the middle of this week.

The story came to the attention of the Gaula (Unified Action Groups for Personal Liberty) and the Public Prosecution Service, as the police officer and a colleague from the institution were charged with racketeering.

Now the detainees face a legal process and the media expects that the punishment for what they did would be 30 years in prison.

What happened to the police officer in Soacha?

One woman, the wife of a merchant who was “extorted,” said her partner paid one million pesos ($240) of the two requested by the officers, Infobae reported.

The uniformed officers will arrive at a place to demand money from the trader in exchange for not taking one of the relatives into custody for an alleged legal process, published Noticias Caracol.

While “remembering” how to collect the money, the two uniformed officers “detained the civilian for several hours” until they “agreeed” on alleged weekly payments.

With the authorities, the intention was to proceed to a controlled delivery of money. The complaint, Infobae said, was taken by Gaula.

Following the recommendation, the merchant contacted the officers and told them to stop by his store. There, they hoped, they would receive the agreed upon weekly pesos.

But to their surprise, uniformed officers burst in during the collection and the police officers were “caught in the act of taking the money”.

In El Colombiano they added that the police officers were caught because “in the middle of the arrest procedure, one of the uniformed officers decided to swallow the bills to avoid being discovered”.

Two police officers are tried for the crime of robbery with death that took place in Cuenca in August 2022

almost suffocated

I got nothing, I got nothing. I don’t know what they’re talking about.

This is how one of the officers reacted, who they say swallowed “a 100,000 peso bill and eight 50,000 peso bills (a total of 500,000 pesos).”

It was no use for him to try to distance himself from the matter. Within seconds it changed color and began to drown. I was “stiffened”.

He showed stomach upset and difficulty breathing, El Colombiano described, reporting that the police officer was receiving medical attention. The Gaula people there warned him to have his stomach pumped out.

What the Public Prosecution Service and in networks say

The unusual story has now been brought to justice by the police. The Cundinamarca prosecutor’s office indicated that they had been charged with kidnapping for extortion – because they detained the trader before the extortion was collected. and aggravated extortion.

In the case of the one who “swallowed the bills”, the press indicated that they added the charge of destruction of evidence.

Those investigated could face up to 30 years in prison.

The fact attracted attention on networks, where users said:

“Watching the news from Colombia is much more interesting than watching a corruption series on Netflix. Incredible, we are unique,” ​​said Eri Torres ironically.

“They are seriously damaging the confidence of the Colombian police,” NĂ©stor Maya said. And Paula Ariza regretted it and said, “What a disgrace to their children, their families.”