Syrian Governmental efforts to settle with a famous kidnapping gang in As-Suwayda

As-Suwayda governorate is witnessing popular criticism and resentment, due to government security intelligence attempts to settle with a famous gang known for kidnappings for ransom. 

Where as-Suwayda governorate is still witnessing a state of insecurity, as a result of the assassinations and kidnappings for ransom, which affected both, civilians and security personnel.  

Sources in as-Suwayda told North-Press that the department of state scurity has appointed “the commander of Humat ad-Diyar group, Nazih Jarbou’a to communicate with a gang based in the town of Ariqa, west of the city of Shahba in the northern countryside of as-Suwayda”.  

The local sources, who denied to reveal their identities, indicated that “Ariqa gang” consists of about 25 young men, where most of them are from the town of Ariqa, and were accused of carrying out dozens of kidnappings incidents in the past three years. 

The gang had released some of its kidnappers in exchange for ransoms, where some of which amounted to tens of SYP millions. 

The sources pointed out that “a number of the people whom they accused of kidnapping, were killed after the inability of their families to pay the required ransom in order to release them”.  

The sources also indicated that “the gang was torturing the people they kidnapped, photographing them and sending those photos and footages to their families in order to make pressure on them to pay the required ransom”. 

The commander of Humat ad-Diyar group went to the town of Ariqa and met with the members of the gang, where they refused to make a settlement due to personal allegations against some of them, and that they are wanted by the Syrian government for the compulsory and reserve recruitment, according to the same sources. 

The members of the gang demanded to resolve their files and to find economic solutions, with “promises to stop their kidnapping activities and to receive the kidnapped from other gangs for three months, as an opportunity to find a comprehensive solution”.

  

On the other hand, activists and residents of the region criticized the government’s attempts of settlement with the notorious Ariqa gang, where the criminal has been equated with the peaceful opposed, and those who had an unfair report have been equated with those who are wanted by a security department due to a telephone call. 

Some of the sons of as-Suwayda accuse the security apparatus of being responsible for the existence of such gangs, as a number of them were carrying security cards, as a result of their contract with them. 

They also included some armed men from loyalist groups, and then they were involved in trade with the areas of Daraa, which was under the control of the armed opposition groups, and transferring fuel which was coming from ISIS controlled-areas to the south of the country, where kidnapping incidents have been escalated after that trade was stopped.