The threat was clear: photos of his family in different places and dates taken over the course of a year, a 9 millimeter Parabellum caliber cartridge and a request for payment of 100,000 euros. This extortion was directed at a Murcian businessman by a violent organized group that has just been arrested by the National Police and that supposedly also had among its possible targets companies that had received contracts with the regional Administration. The four detainees are being investigated for membership in a criminal group, extortion and illegal possession of weapons. The leader of the group, who has been imprisoned, had a workshop in his home where he made explosives and two devices ready to be used have been seized, one of them hidden in a backpack.
The case, in the hands of the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 4 of Murcia, has taken place entirely in the Murcia region. During the investigation, which began in April, agents from the Murcia Information Brigade and the General Information Commissioner’s Office advised the extorted businessman at all times. The detainees contacted him again weeks after demanding the 100,000 euros, although this time they posed as negotiators for the armed organization. The operation culminated last Monday with the arrests, made in the capital of Murcia and several districts.
Those investigated, men between 45 and 60 years old, had no police record. According to police sources, their functions were distributed within the group. Those in charge of the operational part had jobs related to the world of security. They belonged to the so-called Citizen Action Group, created in 2020, and in whose charter they defined themselves as “neither Marxist nor fascist, but common sense,” these same sources point out. The documentation that has been seized, and that the investigators are now analyzing, were against the parties, outside of justice and placed among their objectives businessmen linked to the regional or municipal government and those who profit for their own benefit with town funds.
Initially, the court case addresses attempts to extort businessmen and the possession of explosive substances. If the investigating judge or the prosecutor’s office finds elements that allow part of the investigation to be framed in terrorism crimes, the court must recuse itself in favor of the National Court, which is competent in this matter.
During the search of the home of the main person under investigation, the agents seized two explosive devices with gasoline bottles, two firearms and a large amount of ammunition and cartridges. According to researchers, the devices were ready to be used at any time. One of them was inside a backpack with a hole that gave access to a mechanical delayed detonation device.
🚩Dismantled in #Murcia an organized armed group that extorted businessmen
🔹One of the 4 detainees had a workshop where he made homemade explosive devices
🔹A businessman was sent a letter with photos of his family and a cartridge, requesting €100,000 pic.twitter.com/DzOz8nKYs7
— National Police (@policia) June 17, 2024
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The agents also seized elements related to the alleged extortion and surveillance work, such as GPS-type tracking and location devices, a voice distorter, detention loops, night vision glasses, eleven mobile phones and computer material that investigators are analyzing.
Video with balaclava
The now dismantled group was defined in a charter sent to a media outlet as a “civil, armed and independent organization” that acts “on the margins of justice, inactive, non-existent and kneeling to partisan or personal interests.” Among their objectives, they established “directors and partners of satellite companies linked to the regional government of Murcia”, “individuals who act for their own benefit, taking advantage of the assets or funds that belong to the people”, or “all those people who, taking advantage of their status as “People linked to the regional or municipal government, either through positions or through intermediation in contracting operations with the Institutions, profit ostentatiously.”
The leader of the group also created an Internet platform called the Citizen Resistance Platform, through which he disseminated his thoughts, attracted followers and asked for donations. Among his ideology, the “elimination of national political parties” and “the intervention of public administrations” stand out. Investigators have found videos in which the main suspect appears with a balaclava and a distorted voice, with a staging that imitates the broadcasts made by armed terrorist groups.
During the operation, the agents have also seized various paraphernalia of the group. In the records, posters with slogans such as “turn down the lights, pigs”, “state energy management” or “electricity, water, not in private hands” can be seen. Documentation from other citizen resistance platforms and documentation of interest have also been seized, such as a manual from the Coordinated Anarchist Group, a group that was the author of the attack on the Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza in 2012.
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