MIAMI – A member of the former “Tomaseros” gang accused of drugging and kidnapping robbery victims in the entertainment districts of Bogotá, Colombia, appeared in U.S. federal court in Miami.
Records show the gang chose to target the wrong two men during a busy soccer game watch party in 2020 at the Colombian Pub, a bar in Bogotá's Zona T, and that cost them.
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Colombian authorities later identified their two victims on March 5, 2020, as two U.S. Army soldiers who were on temporary duty at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.
Colombian police officers found one of them ill and disoriented on March 6, 2020, and took him to a clinic where he tested positive for benzodiazepines.
The bruised U.S. soldiers had lost their phones and wallets with debit and credit cards. The Tomaseros had escorted them out of the bar and separated them.
Investigators identified a driver waiting outside the bar for the kidnapping victims as Pedro “Tata” Silva and found him living in Chile working as a driver under a different identity.
Chile extradited Silva, 47, and first appeared in U.S. federal court on April 18 in Miami.
He faced charges of kidnapping an internationally protected person, conspiracy to kidnap an IPP, assaulting an IPP, and conspiracy to assault an IPP.
On Wednesday, prosecutors announced that as part of a plea agreement, Silva had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person.
Investigators identified other members of the Tomaseros accused of being involved including Jeffersson “Harry Potter” Arango, also known as Jeffersson Arango Castellanos, and Kenny “Hellen” Uribe, also known as Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran.
Arango, 36, appeared in U.S. federal court on May 5, 2023, in Miami. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 26 to kidnapping an IPP, conspiracy to kidnap an IPP, assaulting an IPP, and conspiracy to assault an IPP. He was sentenced to 48 years and nine months in prison on May 30.
Uribe, 35, appeared in U.S. federal court on Sept. 9 in Miami. She faced charges of kidnapping an IPP, conspiracy to kidnap an IPP, assaulting an IPP, and conspiracy to assault an IPP.