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PDI arrests new suspect in Grollmus Mill attack: alleged member of the RML

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The Investigative Police (PDI) arrested a new suspect allegedly involved in the attack on the Grollmus Mill, which occurred on August 29, 2022, in Contulmo, in the Bío Bío region.

This operation was carried out by detectives from the Special Anti-Kidnapping Police Investigations Brigade of Cañete.

The detainee is Robert Galindo Huenumil, 26 years old, who was arrested in the Huape area under an active arrest warrant.

It was also reported that the detainee is allegedly a member of the radical group Resistencia Mapuche Lavkenche (RML).

With this arrest, 16 people have now been detained in connection with this case. The latest detainee was placed at the disposal of the Cañete Guarantee Court for a detention hearing.

According to the investigation, around 30 people participated in this brutal attack on the Grollmus family and the historic mill, half of whom are currently in preventive detention.

The facts under investigation

According to the Prosecutor's Office, around 4:00 PM on August 29, 2022, approximately thirty individuals gathered on a field in the Antiquina sector of Cañete, where they planned the attack on the Grollmus family's properties.

Upon arriving near the property, one of the accused distributed short and long firearms, ammunition, bulletproof vests, and radios to the others. Shortly after, a group set fire to a neighboring house owned by Lorena Caamaño Sánchez, who was not home at the time. The house was completely consumed by the flames.

Simultaneously, a second group of about a dozen individuals attacked victims Mario Hernán González Arce and Celso Hernaldo Carrillo Castillo on a secondary road while they were performing forestry work and traveling in a pickup truck. After intimidating them with shotguns, the attackers forced them out of the vehicle and stole the truck, a couple of chainsaws, and the workers' cell phones. They then tied their hands and feet and took the truck, which they used—along with another vehicle previously stolen from Fabiola Herrera Arrepol—to block access to the Grollmus Mill.

Between 5:30 and 6:00 PM, the assailants violently entered the property where the mill is located, at kilometer 1,220 of Route P-700, owned by Edward Helmuth Wilfred Grollmus Schröeder. The property also includes the family home shared with his son Christian Pablo Grollmus Fritz, a museum, and warehouses.

The attackers surrounded the family home and opened heavy fire on the building. Christian Grollmus repelled the attack with a 12-millimeter shotgun and a 9-millimeter pistol, supported by his father, who used a 16-millimeter shotgun.

Amid the gunfire, the attackers set fire to the wood shed, the mill, and the family museum, all of which were completely destroyed, along with the occupants' vehicles: a pickup truck owned by the father and a station wagon belonging to the son.

Meanwhile, another faction entered a neighboring house and violently subdued Carlos Enrique Grollmus Thiele (79 years old), using him as a human shield against gunfire from the main house. They then assaulted the elderly man with kicks and punches, and one of the accused shot him at close range in the left leg with a shotgun. The life-threatening injury required the amputation of his leg.

During the attack, the accused also subdued victim Ramón Nonato Cid Gutiérrez (75 years old), who was nearby inside a car waiting for his son. When they dragged him out of the vehicle and threw him to the ground, the victim's son, Christian Rodrigo Cid Ferreira, intervened. However, one of the attackers shot him in the face with a 12-millimeter shotgun, causing eye trauma and permanent loss of vision in his right eye, among other pellet-related injuries.

Upon learning of the events, Carabineros from the Contulmo Tenencia arrived at the scene in a pickup truck and an armored vehicle but had to continue on foot due to roadblocks set up earlier by the accused. Upon arrival, they used their institutional firearms, prompting the attackers to flee in their vehicles.

Source:BiobioChile