Multimillionaire hiring carousel in the purchase of armored cars

And multi-million dollar recruitment carousel for the purchase, rental and maintenance of armored cars is investigating the prosecution.

The investigation involves dealers, armorers, intermediaries, officials from nine public institutions, several colonels and two generals from the National Police.

According to the indications that the accusing entity has the operation is articulated in a company initially called M&M Group and that now operates under the name 7M Group. The investigative unit of El Tiempo had already reported irregularities by 7MGroup in the sale of tanks to the ESMAD of the Police.

Now it is revealed that two executives of that firm presumably balance bids of billions of pesos between private providers and official entities to make restrictive agreements on competition and bribe officials with payments in cash and in kind.

The public entities mentioned in the investigation and with officials involved are:

The Revolving Fund of the National Police
The General Directorate of the National Police
The National Protection Unit
The Ministry of National Defense
The Senate of the Republic
The House of Representatives
The Bogota Surveillance Fund
The National Institute of Roads
And the Attorney General’s Office itself

As to the companies that have allegedly participated in the illicit operations They are: Toyota-Redes: Distoyota SAS, Toyota de Colombia, dealers: Autoyota, Toyonorte and Yokomotor; Sofasa Renault, Hyundai Car, Hyundai de Colombia SA, Renault Truck Defense, Suzuki motos and the armoring companies Blindex SA, Blinsecurity Limitada, GMW Blindajes and Kobe Motors, a company specializing in vehicle adaptation, as well as a supplier of spare parts and accessories.

The Prosecutor’s Office has intercepted communications where illegal agreements are made and prices are unified to win bids.

Also there are calls with officials from 2014 to the present day. For example, in the National Police there are recorded conversations between Colonel Silva, Colonel Peláez, Colonel Mesa, Colonel Palomino, Colonel Roa, then Lieutenant Yésica Godoy, Captain Luis Espinosa, and Generals Yesid Vásquez, who was an inspector of the Police and General Rodolfo Palomino, former director of the National Police.

The investigations have gone on for years and Among those allegedly involved is the chief of transportation of the Attorney General’s Office John Henry Porras Quitián. There are also two other officials from the accusing body: Luis Albeiro Lizarazo and Harold Rodríguez Castellanos, the latter is a mechanical engineer who works as a management professional for the Department of Transportation.

For them the Prosecutor’s Office requested an indictment hearing for the crime of undue interest in the conclusion of contracts. Marcela Montes Zuluaga, who is the manager of Kobe Motors and is married to Ricardo Manjarrés, another of those involved, will be charged with the same crime.

The list of crimes that the Prosecutor’s Office attributes to Manjarrés, Yonn Jairo García Rivera, Felipe Adolfo Arbeláez Mejía from the Blindex armor company, Daniel Eduardo Abello Uribe from Toyonorte and Luis Wilson González from GMW shields is longer. The investigative body attributes to them having incurred in concert to commit a crime, influence peddling, bribery for giving an offer, improper interest in the conclusion of contracts and agreements restricting competition.

These two lists with eight defendants are just the first. It is expected that in the coming weeks police officers, civil servants and individuals will be called to appear before justice.

The prosecutor handling the case is Angelica Monsalvethe same one that called three powerful members of the Ríos Velilla family to trial and that she denounced that they wanted to transfer her to punish her and take away the process.

Multimillionaire hiring carousel in the purchase of armored cars

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