BENGALURU: Five Colombians, including a woman, who were allegedly committing burglaries in the city, were arrested by the Jayanagar police. Six cases, including the burglary at former Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee’s house ,have been solved with their arrest. Booty worth `80 lakh has been recovered from them.The accused are Jose Edwardo alias Arevalo Burbano (40), Gustavo Adolfo alias Jaramillo Giraldo (47), Yair Alberto alias Rozer alias Smith Duarte (45), Eduard Alexis alias Garcia Peramo (38) and Kinberly Jhoarya (30).
The Jayanagar police, who were investigating two burglary cases reported, were gathering information about the accused. As the visuals of the suspects in the both the cases matched, they traced the registration number of the car used by them by questioning several certified second hand car dealers and finally tracked and arrested them.
“The accused had hatched the plan to commit thefts in India as two of the accused persons had the experience of committing theft in Bengaluru twice earlier in 2010 and 2016. They had selected Bengaluru as they knew it is an IT hub and was home to wealthy people. They chalked out a plan around 4 to 5 months ago and had purchased four sets of walkie-talkie in Mexico. Yair Alberto managed to get a fake American passport to fly down to India. In advance, they booked a fully furnished villa belonging to an Indian living in the UK.
As per the plan, Yair, Alexis and his girlfriend Kinberly Jhoarya came to Mumbai and then to Bengaluru in the first week of June, while two others, who had already come to Nepal in May third week, came to Delhi after obtaining E-Visa and then to Bengaluru. Soon after coming to the city, they purchased tools required to commit theft from shops at JC Road and City Market. They also purchased pre-activated SIM cards and five basic mobile handsets from a shop,” city Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar told reporters on Tuesday.
They went in a car searching for posh residential areas in the city using GPS. They identified locked houses and committed burglary. “While three men entered the house, the woman waited near the house and alerted them through walkie-talkie. Another accused waited in car, so that they could escape soon. After committing theft, they diluted gold jewellery and turned them into gold bars,” the police added.
BACKGROUND OF THE ACCUSED
Jose Edwardo
Runs wholesale garment store, jailed for five years in Columbia on charges of possessing illegal pistol
Gustavo Adolfo
An MBA post-graduate, was arrested on charges of murdering the son of a police officer in Columbia in 1996. Was in jail for 16 years and was released in 2012
Yair Alberto
A welder by profession, was arrested thrice for staying illegally in the US in 2009, 2012 and 2015
Eduard Alexis
Has done a course in food handling, was booked thrice for staying illegally in New York. Only person to know English in the gang, while others spoke Spanish.