The Colombian police located in Medellin a factory producing supplies and uniforms belonging to FARC dissidents, following this week’s explosive attack against a power tower in the city.
The materials, found in the city’s Comuna 3 Manrique, bore the emblems of the 36th Front, the same group authorities blame for the attack which, although it caused no casualties, sparked brief panic due to the power of the explosive.
Authorities also pointed out that, in addition to seizing the materials, the operation resulted in the capture of alias “Tio” or “Sastre,” identified as a member of the support networks of that illegal structure.
FARC dissident factory uncovered in Medellin after explosion attack
The governor of the department of Antioquia, Andres Julian Rendon, reported the discovery in a Medellin neighborhood of a home-based factory that produced uniforms and other supplies for the 36th Front of the FARC dissidents.
The police operation, carried out just hours after the group’s attack on a power tower in the sector known as Loma del Indio, in the southeastern part of the city, managed to seize various supplies and arrest the person responsible for their production.
“Following the terrorist attacks in Medellin, authorities report results from raids: they found a house in Comuna 3 where uniforms and other supplies were being made for the 36th Front of the FARC dissidents,” Rendon wrote on his personal account on the social network X.
The governor added that “the public force captured alias Tio or Sastre, a member of the 36th Front’s support networks, in charge of logistics, criminal intelligence activities, and procurement of supplies and explosives,” referring to the detainee, who is believed to have been the permanent link with the activists of the illegal armed group.
Luego de los ataques terroristas en Medellín, las autoridades reportan resultados en allanamientos: encontraron una vivienda en la Comuna 3 donde se fabricaban uniformes y otro material de intendencia para el frente 36 de las disidencias Farc.
La Fuerza Pública capturó a alias… pic.twitter.com/4HQNDyGJlI
— Andrés Julián (@AndresJRendonC) September 12, 2025
Urban support networks, the hidden face of armed groups in Colombia
The arrest of alias “Sastre” represents, according to the police, a significant blow against the urban support network of the criminal group known as Frente 36.
Urban support networks for armed groups in Colombia have been a key component in the prolongation of the internal conflict. In the past, these structures were made up of clandestine militants operating in cities, neighborhoods, and universities, responsible for providing information, logistics, finances, and shelter to guerrillas or paramilitary groups.
Their role was essential to maintaining the link between the rural areas, where combat was concentrated, and the urban centers, where resources circulated, and political propaganda was disseminated.
Currently, although weakened, these networks persist with dynamics as fragmented as the armed groups that emerged from the dissidences of the defunct FARC. Many of their members participate in illegal economies such as drug trafficking, extortion, or smuggling, which has diversified their functions.
In addition to serving as human couriers, informants, or financiers, they also carry out intelligence tasks, identifying movements of the public force and alerting their armed structures. Finally, as in the case discovered today in Medellin, from the cities they provide armed groups with uniforms, logistics supplies, and even medicine.
Paradoxically, in several cases these networks have contributed to the downfall of the insurgent leaders themselves. A notable example was in 2010, when the killing of alias “Mono Jojoy” was achieved thanks to a tracking device hidden in his footwear, infiltrated through an urban intelligence operation. This demonstrated how control or infiltration of these networks can make the difference in the course of the Colombian conflict.