Bogotá.- A Colombian prosecutor charged 17 people with extortion, including five guards from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec), for alleged links to a gang that carried out telephone extortions from the El Barne high-security prison, located in Cómbita, Boyacá department, the Prosecutor’s Office reported this Sunday.
According to the investigative body, the organization operated between January and December 2025 and was composed of prison officials and external individuals who performed differentiated roles to support extortion calls made by inmates.
The investigation indicates that some of the alleged perpetrators collected information on the victims, such as their economic activity, place of residence, and family data, while others forwarded that information to the inmates, who contacted citizens by phone in different regions of the country to demand money under threats.
“In this way, numerous calls were made from El Barne, in which inmates from different pavilions called different regions with agendas in hand and, on behalf of organized armed structures, made demands for money transfers and deposits,” the Prosecutor’s Office stated in a press release.
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The arrests were carried out in a coordinated manner with the National Police in Bogotá and in municipalities of the departments of Antioquia, Atlántico, Norte de Santander, Santander, Caquetá, Valle del Cauca, and Boyacá.
Among those prosecuted are the prison guards Javier Alexander Hernández, John Fredy Pineda, Cristian Mauricio Arcos, Brayan Esteven Salamanca, and Deivis Maryu Forero who, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, allegedly failed to fulfill their custodial duties to allow the entry of cell phones and other items necessary for carrying out extortions from different wings of the penitentiary center.
None of the defendants accepted the charges for the crime of extortion brought against them by the prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Criminal Organizations.
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By decision of a guarantee control judge, Dragoneante Forero must remain in preventive detention, while the others will continue to be linked to the investigation.
