For almost two years, a criminal gang turned the highways leading in and out of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, into hunting grounds. Working under cover of night, members scattered tacks, nails or sharpened metal rods on the road to puncture drivers’ tires. When a car was forced to stop, armed men on motorcycles would swoop in, beat the occupants and take them hostage, often draining their bank accounts through mobile banking apps.
Colombia’s Traffic Police say the group, nicknamed ‘Los Pinchallantas’ (‘The Tire Puncturers’), is linked to nine attacks affecting 21 victims and losses of nearly 750 million pesos (roughly $180,000). Eleven suspected members were arrested during 12 raids in Bogotá and the nearby city of Soacha.
One of the worst episodes happened in April near the Mondoñedo toll booth, when six men surrounded a family’s truck after a tire blew out. The attackers forced seven people, including two children and two elderly adults, into a muddy excavation site, tying them up in the rain for about seven hours while beating them and demanding phone passwords. Victims suffered hypothermia, injuries and, in one child’s case, lasting trauma.
Investigators traced similar attacks on routes toward Villavicencio and Tunja, describing a gang that deliberately picked dark, wooded, isolated stretches of highway. Officers seized cellphones and card readers used to steal victims’ money.
Read the full investigation at El Tiempo.
Source: El expediente de ‘Los Pinchallantas’, banda que retenía, torturaba y robaba en las entradas y salidas de Bogotá (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
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