Highly skilled international robbers' gang from Columbia burgled 31 houses in Bengaluru: Police

A notorious international gang of robbers from Columbia allegedly burgled 31 houses, including that of former Karnataka chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, here over the past few years, police said on Thursday.

A notorious international gang of robbers from Columbia allegedly burgled 31 houses, including that of former Karnataka chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, here over the past few years, police said on Thursday. Interrogation of three members of the gang, arrested in March this year, brought to light their involvement in 31 burglaries, they said.

The arrested have been identified as Willian Padilla Martinez (48), Liedy Stefania Munoz Monsalve (23) and Christian Yeinis Navarro Olarte (34). Their mastermind Gustavo was at large, police said.

"Gold worth Rs 2.58 crore, nine mm browning pistol and 23 live bullets, two motorcycles were recovered from their possession. On interrogation, they confessed that they burgled 31 houses and wanted to carry out a bank heist," a police release said. The police were on the lookout for the trio when they tried to loot a house in October, 2019. The gang members had entered the house by breaking the grill but when the police came there on getting information, they scaled the 15 feet high wall using 'Parkour' technique.

This gave the police a clue about the involvement of Gustavo, who had burgled the house of Mukherjee in 2018 using the same method. Subsequently a team was constituted, which nabbed the gang members in March last near a petrol pump here.

During interrogation, the gang members revealed they had come to India via Nepal on a tourist visa and stayed in the service apartments in prime locations, police said, adding they would survey their target houses and plan the burglaries. They had a mobile jammer, pepper spray, knife, drill bit machine of Bosch company, laser cutting machine, hardware tools, axle blade, ring spanner rods, cutting plier, flame gun, iron solder and head torch.

"Their equipment is different and shocking because never in the past any thief has used them," police said.

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